The Ravenclaw Chronicles
by ivorynightfall
Summary: What if Hermione was sorted into Ravenclaw, and she, Harry and Ron never became the Golden Trio? But some things are inevitable; HP/HG, light Weasley bashing
1. Year 1

Disclaimer: I make no legal claim to the Harry Potter series, which is owned by JK Rowling and various publishers and media conglomerates. This fanfiction is a fair use of the Harry Potter world, however, but strictly for entertainment purposes. I make no profit off of it, though I do lay claim to the story line and the differing characterizations of main characters and the portrayal of what were only minor characters in the primary series.

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What if Hermione was sorted into Ravenclaw, and she and Harry and Ron never became the Golden Trio?

Rowling completely ignores the academic competition aspect of Hogwarts. Especially if it is true that good academics can also earn house points, we can see that, at least in Ravenclaw, there would be stiff academic competition for best grades. But other than to continuously assert that Hermione is the smartest witch of her age and the top student at Hogwarts (which is sometimes portrayed in a bad light!), Rowling doesn't go further. Even if she were so smart, it is clear that Hermione needs to put in quite a bit of effort to retain this moniker (even going so far as to burn herself out with the Time Turner Third Year) – which Rowling again does not address. This fic will attempt to address the lack of characterization in this aspect, and attempt to introduce a more complete portrayal of Hermione as a student and Hogwarts as an educational institution. And what that means for the HP world and, in particular, her friendship with Harry and Ron. Operates on a year by year basis, so as to avoid unnecessary detail and explanation.

As such, I take several liberties with canon. Not everything is accurate, but please point out inconsistencies to me as much as possible. This fic was inspired by another story on Portkey in which Hermione is a Gryffindor but not friends with Harry and Ron and secretly helps them research for their adventures.

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**The Ravenclaw Chronicles: Year One**

Hermione sat on the Hogwarts Express with her best friends, Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein. They were the most academically gifted students in their year, ranking first, second and third respectively.

While Hogwarts did not officially produce rankings, the students of Ravenclaw House published their own. While unofficial, The List (technically, lists, as there was one for each year) was extremely accurate, as it was a tradition for students to anonymously report their own grades.[1] The List was posted in the common room for all to see, and had a truth enchantment that prevented students from lying. Those students who successfully bypassed the enchantment (only five in the history of The List) and lie about their grades were always caught by either their peers or by professors (who sometimes 'unofficially' confirmed or denied class rankings).

Despite a rough start, Hermione had a wonderful first year at Hogwarts. On her first train ride to Hogwarts, she'd met Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Neville Longbottom. She'd spent most of her train ride attempting to help Neville find his toad, Trevor, and had run into Potter and Weasley in the process.

She'd introduced herself and tried to become friends with them. But Potter had had little knowledge of his own history, and had been somewhat off-put by all the information she'd found on him. (She'd been interested in his story, and done some research, that was all!) But he treated her as if she were a stalker or something.

Ronald Weasley hadn't been much better. He'd called her a bossy know-it-all. Later on in the year, she'd learned that _anyone _would be a bossy know-it-all compared to Ron Weasley, because he was just so lazy, unmotivated and unintelligent.

When Ronald had said he wanted to be in Gryffindor, Hermione had decided that she definitely did not want to be in Gryffindor - even despite all the good she'd heard about it - and stuck to her original plan of Ravenclaw. After all, she'd been looking forward to being among peers who enjoyed learning as much as she did. Besides, she doubted that Neville, who she did like, would be in Gryffindor.

She'd been very surprised when Potter, Weasley, and Neville all made it into Gryffindor and became somewhat of a 'Golden Trio' towards the end of their first year. Those three spent almost all their time with each other. Still, Hermione and Neville remained friendly - probably because Neville hadn't been friends with Potter and Weasley until they'd saved him part-way through the year from a troll - but did not see each other much, between her classes and his escapades with Potter and Weasley.

So when she was first sorted into Ravenclaw, she'd been ecstatic to be among other students who valued their academics as much as she. However, she soon realized that that was a double-edged sword. Exactly because Ravenclaws valued their academics as much as Hermione, for the first time in her life, she had academic competition. She attempted to help a couple of students her first week on their Transfiguration homework but was rapidly rebuffed because they _did not need her help_. They either quickly got the hang of it themselves, or were too proud to accept her help and practiced further on their own time to learn the correct wand movements. Back at home, lots of kids asked for her help but then called her a bossy know-it-all behind her back. But here in Ravenclaw it didn't matter that she was a know-it-all, because everyone was smart. And so she had no one to boss around, because no one needed her help.

She had had a lot of trouble adjusting to this new reality, and had put some people off with her bossy attitude. Everyone who she tried to help saw her as interfering with their own learning or claimed that she was being patronizing. As a result, Hermione had few friends at first. One evening, Prefect Penelope Clearwater took her aside and explained that while the other students might not want her help, they might enjoy all studying together and helping each other.

But her real social breakthrough didn't come until they were given an extremely difficult Potions project. Professor Snape was infamous for his greasy hair and harsh teaching methods. He seemed especially annoyed by her eagerness to answer questions, and had sometime in their first week determined to make an example of her. Snape ridiculed her constant hand-raising, to the pleasure of the other Ravenclaws, and found creative excuses for finding fault in her work and taking off House points. That made her even more unpopular in her house and increasingly miserable. It didn't help that he assigned her the most difficult subject for their first potions project, the Pepper-Up potion being at least an OWL level brew. While she had always been socially inadequate, she had always been able to rely on her smarts and grew despondent when it became clear that she was out of her depth when it came to potions.

That day in the library, she'd become increasingly frustrated as she was unable to find out whether hellsbane or toad skin was the best ingredient for a modified Pepper-Up potion. She'd almost broke down and cried, until Padma Patil walked over with a book and patiently explained why toad skin was the better option. Rather than resenting Padma for her intelligence, Hermione was simply relieved and accepted Padma's offer to study together and form a mini-potions study club. Padma had admitted to being impressed by Hermione's ability to quickly catch onto these completely new, magical concepts - in all their classes, but especially in potions. Skill in potions was either innate (inherited) or came from years of exposure, as was the case with Padma, whose father specialized in importing and exporting rare potions ingredients.

This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship, as they began studying together for all their classes, finding each other extremely intelligent. Anthony had been paired with Hermione for a DADA project, and she invited him to join their study group upon realizing how skilled he was at the subject. They each had their strength and weaknesses – Hermione was best at Transfiguration, Herbology, and Charms while Padma excelled in Potions and History of Magic, and Anthony, in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Flying.

All in all, Hermione was convinced she'd not only learned a lot about being a witch this year, but that she'd also improved her social skills and now had two true, best friends. This was a big accomplishment for a girl who'd been isolated at her elementary school for having buckteeth and being a bossy know-it-all. She knew that some students at the school – mostly Gryffindors and Slytherins – still regarded her as such, but now she had real friends who knew the truth. And she had improved her behavior in the past year, and was no longer so overeager to demonstrate her mental superiority over her peers. She was more confident in her intelligence, and didn't feel the need to show off her knowledge to know that she was smart.

Ravenclaw had few classes with Gryffindors, and she could hardly be bothered about the opinion of a house known only for its rash 'bravery.' And even though they had most of their classes with the Slytherins, she had also grown used to worse taunts from them – like 'Mudblood.' They were pureblood, inbred bigots - most of whom were quite dim - and not worth her time. [2]

"Hermione?"

Turning to look at Anthony, she replied, "Sorry. Just lost in my thoughts."

"No problem," said Anthony, smiling.

"So what do you think, Hermione, about Harry Potter? My sister, Parvati, in Gryffindor, says he almost got Longbottom killed by Professor Quirrell!"

This had been the subject of all discussion at Hogwarts in the past week, apart from exams. Apparently, Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Neville Longbottom had disobeyed the headmaster and ventured into the forbidden third floor corridor.

"Well, Quirrell did skip off before giving us our final exams..." offered Anthony.

"Parvati also said that they overcame a series of challenges set by all the teachers, but couldn't figure out the last one, a riddle about potions..."

"They could've used a Ravenclaw, then," laughed Anthony. He was referring to the fact that Ravenclaws regularly had to solve riddles to gain entry into their common room.

"And then he was attacked by Quirrell?" questioned Hermione.

"No, Potter drank the wrong potion and wasn't able to move on, so he ran to get the teachers. Longbottom continued on, and was almost killed by Quirrell until Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore fortuitously intervened." [3]

"Wow, that's quite a tale..." said Hermione and Anthony, together.

"I wonder what they were doing there..." murmured Hermione, remembering a book she'd seen Harry Potter leave behind in the library, on Nicolas Flamel.

"Vati had no idea," said Padma.

"Do the 'Golden Trio' narrate their adventures to the whole Gryffindor common room or something?" asked Anthony.

"No, Vati heard from Lavender Brown, who was talking to Ron Weasley about it one day. I think he was trying to impress her..."

They all shuddered. With his bad manners, poor grades, and lack of any tact whatsoever, Ron Weasley was a much maligned character in their group. Harry Potter was famous for defeating You-Know-Who as a baby, but apart from Quidditch and DADA, had hardly proven himself to be extraordinary. He was a lackluster student. And worst of all, he was best friends with Ron Weasley, who only cared about food and Quidditch, things of much lesser importance to Ravenclaws.

But Potter had been to the library one or two times this year. Oddly, he had not seemed to be researching for class – she didn't think any of their assignments this past year had anything to do with the Flamels – but for something else. Which had apparently turned out to be a disaster. No, the events of this year confirmed her thinking on the train, when she had first met Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. Harry Potter was interesting but much too different from her to be friends. He seemed to always be getting into trouble. She, on the other hand, was determined to preserve her reputation as the top student in her year and would not let anything distract her. [4]

The conversation began moving toward more pleasant topics, such as summer plans and next year's classes. They planned to meet up in Diagon Alley in September to all shop for new school materials together. Hermione also had plans to visit Padma at her house for a week in August. Padma and Parvati were visiting India with their family for most of the summer, and Anthony had plans to visit South America with his parents and to stay part of the summer with his cousins in Germany.

**Notes**:

[1] From my experience, students always have a good idea of who's the smartest in the year, even in schools without official rankings. This is especially true when there is a lot of academic competition, as students compare each others' grades and try to out-do each other. (I went to a pretty competitive high school, where we did a lot of this. Of course, we all got better in college, where class ranking ceases to matter as much.)

[2] Without the influence of Harry and Ron, I think Hermione would simply ignore the Slytherins as she often tries to do in the books (her primary role in these confrontations is exclaiming to Harry or Ron that the Slytherins are not worth it [presumably, not worth a point deduction, their time, energy, etc.]).

[3] In this story, Neville is the third part of the Trio. Presumably, Ron is knocked out in the chess game and Neville and Harry are left to figure out the Potions puzzle. I don't think either are smart enough to do so, so they attempt to guess - but guess incorrectly. So Harry goes and gets the teachers, while Neville moves on and attempts to confront Quirrell. I'd presume that he also ends up with the stone in his pocket, but is tortured and beaten severely by Quirrell when he refuses to give it up. Dumbledore and McGonagall arrive just in time to stop Voldemort from stealing the stone, killing Quirrell and dispossessing Voldemort's spirit. Neville is greatly injured, while Ron and Harry are mostly unharmed. I'm assuming that rumors travel fast and Ron has a loose mouth, so the other houses hear the story through rumors but are unclear about the specifics. In this case, Hermione and Anthony hear a fairly accurate version because Padma's sister Parvati is a Gryffindor and Ron can't shut up.

[4] Hermione would be attracted to Harry as a friend because he's such an interesting character, a wizarding celebrity really. But given that Ravenclaw is such a competitive academic environment, that would be her first priority as she is most consistently exposed to other students striving to steal her academic standing. So while in Gryffindor her focus was Harry and Ron, in Ravenclaw her focus is ever more her academics. So she decides not to go out of her way to befriend Harry. At the beginning of the school year, it is because she's focused on fitting in within her house. And towards the end, its because she's decided he's too much trouble and she wants to focus on her academics.

Mini-Diatribe:

This story operates on several premises/notes about canon:

1. Hermione is a stronger, rational character. She doesn't want to be an outsider, so whenever possible, she will find a way to fit in. We can see this in canon - she is an outsider as a bookworm initially in the first book, but then begins to 'fit in' with Harry and Ron and jumps on that for the rest of her school years. In this story, she will make similar, rational decisions about her social life and her academic life. She will avoid people who put her down (i.e. Ron) and stick with people who have similar interests and understand and like her. Later on, as she develops into a young woman, she _will actually develop into a young woman_. Not only will she begin to be interested in the opposite gender, she will also be interested in maximizing her own attractiveness. Not because she is shallow, but because she recognizes that one's appearance is an important part of oneself and that you should always attempt to get the most out of all of your attributes so as to maximize your chances in life.

2. Hermione is intelligent, and focused on intelligence. Rowling kind of skips over all of the academic stuff in the HP series. For example, some of my pet peeves about canon -

a. We are consistently lead to believe that Hermione is the only one ever in the library. (i.e. Viktor takes notice of her because she is always studying rather than spying/going fangirl on him. So supposedly there is no one else - or at least, no other girls - in the library who are just there to study.) Even if Ravenclaws have their own study room, they would still need to go to the library to borrow books for assignments. Presumably, some would get bored of studying in their common room or would prefer to study in the library for easy access to materials. I thus conclude that Ravenclaws also make consistent use of the library. And if so, after seven years of seeing each other in the library, Hermione must have made some acquaintances in the library, if not some friends.

b. In the HP series, it seems like Hermione has no friends other than Gryffindors. Is the House system that divided? Also, it seems like Hermione has no real friends other than Harry, Ron and, arguably, Ginny and to an extent Neville. In a school of over 100 children, you'd assume that they'd make more friends or acquaintances over seven years. And given Hermione's propensity toward studying and righteous, equal-minded personality, it makes little sense that Hermione would not make friends with people from other Houses and especially, Ravenclaws. (Since we are led to believe that studying is embraced by that House, and that Hermione 'should have been' a Ravenclaw.)

c. Finally, at least in my high school, the 'smartest' students often banded together to study to accrue the cross-benefits of other peoples' expertise. And because they didn't want to be stuck in other study groups with people in less advanced classes, or with less intelligent people that they'd have to go out of their way to help (and would thus detract from their time available to study productively for their own classes and projects). Hermione has no smart friends (Harry and Ron don't count). That certainly makes no sense at all...instead she spends all her time tutoring Harry and Ron... -

Rowling seems to wave a magic wand and have Hermione be so super intelligent that she can be top of her class and the smartest witch of her age even with all the crazy stuff that goes on with Harry and Ron and their insistence on slacking. We are led to believe that somehow, she has no difficulties with the coursework, and is entirely capable of juggling everything - homework, research for Harry and Ron - all on her own. In this story, Hermione is intelligent but has to work hard to be number one. She is not the best in all of her classes, and must compete hard with other students to come out on top.


	2. Year 2, Part 1: Summer and DADA

Disclaimer: Not claiming Harry Potter.

AN: I decided to begin dividing the school years into chapters. This is the first part of Year Two.

Thank you for your kind reviews. I will respond to them in the next couple of days, as I was inspired to write this chapter and didn't want to stop. I tried to address some of the suggestions and questions raised in the reviews - in this chapter, a comparison of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds.

Hope you enjoy, and please keep reviewing!

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**The Ravenclaw Chronicles: ****Year Two**

**Part One: Summer and the DADA Study Group**

As Hermione walked past Harry on the Hogwarts Express and gave him a small wave, she reflected on the past year.

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She'd had a wonderful time at the Patil's house last summer, and had gotten to know Padma's sister Parvati and her friend Lavender Brown. They weren't best friends all of sudden, but they had a friendly relationship. Neither Parvati nor Lavender were that intelligent, as they were focused on boys and beauty rather than brains, but they could be fun at times. The four girls had gone shopping for clothes one day, and Hermione had even tried on a traditional Indian _sari_, the robe worn by witches in India. Even though she was initially resistant, she had to admit that it had been fun trying on silly, expensive or too-big clothes and laughing at each other.

She and Padma also had the opportunity to check each others' homework. Hermione had saved some points, especially in Potions, by Padma's superior knowledge of the subject. She'd also written regularly to Anthony, with whom she also checked answers over owl and whom had promised her a wonderful birthday gift from Peru. (He'd brought her a beautiful sundial made by the shaman in an Inca community still living in a warded-off fortress not far from Machu Picchu. It used an archaic method to tell time, and had runes for time, safe passage and luck.)

The three friends had tried to continue their study group long-distance because it had worked so well during the school year, but resolved next summer to either devise a method for faster, three way communication or to all visit each other at someone's house to simplify the process.

They had all bought their supplies for the school year together in September in Diagon Alley. But as usual Hermione had already bought the books via owl-post and read through most of them by the start of school. For that matter, so had Padma, who had used them to fill her time during the summer in India, which had been so unbearably hot and humid that she'd refused to venture outdoors. Anthony had also started early on their school books and, in addition, read some of his older cousin's books. His cousin, Gunther, was a fourth year at Durmstrang, a school that emphasized the Dark Arts. Anthony was a pureblood from a family that had opposed Voldemort. Tony's Uncle Walter was remarkably progressive for a German pureblood. He allowed Anthony to write Hermione, a muggleborn, while staying at his house. Most Durmstrang families would recoil at even the thought of being associated with muggleborns.

Padma was also a pureblood. While Hermione missed talking with other muggleborns about muggle culture, she was grateful for Padma and Anthony's help in navigating the Wizarding World. Throughout the past school year, she also enjoyed discussing with them both the differences between the two societies. Over the summer, Hermione had talked at length with her father about the subject. Scott Granger was a dentist but also a policy wonk who avidly followed current events. Hermione had spoken with Padma about her new insights after talking with her father, and they came to agreement on several points:

First, the Wizarding world was very socially conservative compared to the muggle world. Not to mention wizards' evident and disturbing disdain for people who didn't have magic. Take, for example, the politically correct term 'muggleborn.' Obviously preferable to 'mudblood,' 'muggleborn' made clear wizards' disdain and desire to differentiate themselves from those of muggle heritage.

Unfortunately, this racism seemed as prevalent among the conservative pureblood elite of Slytherin as in the more progressive purebloods and halfbloods in the other houses.

Padma confessed that even she and her parents were guilty of discriminating unconsciously against muggleborns. For example, Padma's father owned an import/export company that specialized in rare potions ingredients from the Far East. They had hired their first muggleborn just this year, previously too reluctant to give a muggleborn a chance. While they did not mock, ignore, look down on or otherwise actively discriminate against muggleborns, they had passively persisted in believing that muggleborns were not equal to them in every way. Padma confided that it probably also had something to do with the deeply ingrained caste system in India, as they were accustomed to social hierarchies.

Padma also admitted that meeting Hermione was a revelation. Hermione was an extremely smart and magically talented muggleborn, the likes of which Padma – and probably the other Claws – had never seen. In a stroke of insight, Padma also noted that part of the reason why Hermione's efforts at helping others last year were so strongly rebuffed was because she was muggleborn. Pureblood Claws had resented the idea that Hermione, a muggleborn, thought she could teach _them_ how to do magic.

But, Padma assured Hermione, her first place ranking on The List had forced them to respect her intelligence and capabilities. She encouraged Hermione to continue working hard, if not to prove herself to the bigots but for her own self-edification. After all, Hermione clearly enjoyed learning and she should take advantage of this opportunity to explore this entirely new world.

Also, almost every Hogwarts Head Girl had been on the top of the list for most of their years of school. Hermione desperately wanted the respect and honor associated with the position, and was absolutely determined to become Head Girl her seventh year. She knew she faced stiff competition – within Ravenclaw, from Padma (number two) and Mandy Brocklehurst (number six) primarily. And outside of Ravenclaw, from Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin (number four) and Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff (numbers ten and nine, respectively). But Hermione was determined to keep complacency at bay and continue striving for number one.

Second, this racism against muggles and muggleborns had become a source of violent conflict in the Wizarding World. A number of civil wars had already been fought about the subject. These wars had also seen extensive 'Muggle-baiting' – the torture and rape of innocent, ignorant muggles – that could have easily devolved into genocide.

Hermione spent part of her summer reading about the various Wizarding Wars, considering it extra study for History of Magic. The First was between the Founders of Hogwarts on the admissibility of muggleborn students to Hogwarts. Then there were a number of wars demarcating the boundaries between various wizarding states. The modern Wizarding wars included the Sixth Wizarding War, in the United States. WWVII occurred around the time of the Muggle Civil War, and centered on both the pureblood/muggleborn issue and the race debate between blacks and whites. WWVIII was in Eastern Europe, pitting Dumbledore, their illustrious headmaster, against Grindelwald – again on the pureblood/muggleborn issue. Finally, the Ninth and most recent Wizarding War starred Voldemort, who had also advocated pureblood supremacy up until his defeat at the hands of a baby Harry Potter.

She wasn't sure how long she'd want to stay in the Wizarding World, but she resolved to finish learning about it and be able to fully control her magic before making an informed decision. She still planned on going to Cambridge after this, after all. Her inspiration was her uncle Mark Granger, a human rights barrister. He'd even been part of International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), defending justice and the basic rights of the marginalized and oppressed. Hermione had always wanted to be like Mark when she was older. Though her entrance into the Wizarding World added a new element to her considerations, her commitment to justice and equality remained the same. Her father shared Uncle Mark's passion for current affairs. Hermione and her father had spent many Sunday mornings discussing current events and even Mark's cases – a time she treasured.

Hopefully, she could straddle both Wizarding and muggle worlds. Both Hermione and her father had thought that a major source of the mutual hatred between wizards and muggles was ignorance and misunderstanding. As a muggleborn, she believed it was her responsibility to capitalize on her unique position between the worlds to bring greater understanding and cooperation to both.

Wizards did not understand how muggles used science to accomplish great feats – driving, flying – that sometimes even eclipsed the capabilities of magic. They simply associated muggles with the witch trials and persecutions throughout history that had threatened the existence of witches and wizards. As such, they saw muggles as a threat to their way of life – and muggleborns as agents of muggle culture, infiltrating and eroding wizarding society. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that muggle society in general was more progressive than wizarding society, which had remained insulated after the 19th Century and preserved what were essentially Victorian values and social paradigms. Nearly one hundred years behind the muggle world in social conventions, it made sense that the wizarding (pureblood) elite would resist the equalizing reform that a muggleborn influx would inevitably bring.

It was not much better on the muggle side. Even her parents – highly educated professionals – initially doubted the existence of magic. Even when it manifested in front of their very eyes, in the form of their daughter. The Grangers had sought out any even partially believable scientific explanation for why she had been able to blow up her plate of broccoli when she was five. It was only when Professor McGonagall arrived on their doorstep and forced them to believe that they began to do so. But that did not mean that they _understood_.

The existence of people with an additional, extraordinary set of powers with the capacity to wipe or warp their minds scared muggles. Ignorance of the boundaries and rules surrounding the use of magic set off paranoia amongst muggles, who became afraid of wizards taking advantage of them at every turn. As a result, they sought to regain control over themselves and the 'threat' of magic. The intersections of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds had, in every age and almost every place (with the exceptions of Ancient Egypt, Sumeria, and the Inca and Maya in South America), resulted in disaster and the persecution of wizards. Muggles levied their greater numbers – and later on, their possession of destructive firepower – to persecute and kill wizards. Hence, the International Statue of Secrecy, which had been in place since the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Finally, it seemed like the Wizarding World had done little to change their laws to prevent another Wizarding War revolving around the pureblood/muggleborn issue. There were no changes in the laws (she'd checked in some law books she'd bought at the bookstore) about status for muggleborns and half-bloods, even as the number of purebloods continued to decrease. It was clear the elite was losing its numerical advantage. They felt increasingly threatened socially and economically as the more numerous muggleborns began making their mark on conservative pureblood society. The pureblood elite were scared their influence was waning. History showed that they would try their best to stem this inevitable flow. While they focused on using laws to curb muggleborns' potential for social change, they had shown themselves to be willing to use even war and the advocacy of genocide. Though Harry Potter had ended the Ninth Wizarding War, Hermione and Padma expected that another genocidal dark wizard would rise to champion the cause of pureblood supremacy. The cycle was doomed to repeat itself until the pureblood society reconciled to the muggleborn influence. The other outcome was a muggleborn rebellion against such discriminatory laws, which could either manifest as a gradual infiltration of the existing pureblood order or a violent, abrupt revolt against bigoted purebloods.

Hermione was afraid discrimination against muggleborns would affect her job prospects after graduation. But she hoped that being Head Girl and graduating on the top of The List would more than make up for that if she decided she wanted a career in the Magical World.

* * *

At the beginning of the school year, Hermione had been excited to be taking DADA with the famed Gilderoy Lockhart. She'd even had a schoolgirl crush on the charming, accomplished professor. But soon, she and the other Claws realized that he truly did not intend to teach anything beyond his books. That would have sufficed if his books had been proper textbooks, but they were merely entertaining narratives of his feats. They presented no practical instruction of defense against the dark arts.

As a result, the Claws quickly formed their own DADA study groups and bought copies of an old second year DADA textbook (with help from Penelope Clearwater, again a Prefect, and again top of her year).

Even though she now got along with almost all the Claws, Hermione was glad she'd had a ready-made DADA study group in Anthony and Padma. Their group used the old DADA textbooks, a copy of standard guidelines for the upcoming OWL DADA exam, and books on the Dark Arts that Anthony's Uncle sent him from Germany to design their own study schedule. They'd had to use a translation spell to read the books from Anthony's Uncle. But the books made their DADA study group the envy of Ravenclaw because of their unusual, rich content on the Dark Arts.

It seemed that in the Governors' attempt to avoid teaching the students the Dark Arts, Hogwarts had consistently offered sub-par instruction of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Students had to know what they were defending against to properly defend themselves. Padma, Hermione and Anthony planned to research Beauxbatons' DADA curriculum, and had agreed to formally write a complaint to the Governors if Hogwarts' instruction proved to be inferior to the French school's as well.

Ravenclaw still attended their DADA class with Lockhart, but the Claws spent most of their time in class working on their own DADA studies. Or, as was the case for Anthony, Hermione and Padma – devising a new method of three-way communication for them to use in the summers.

Then Lockhart had formed a dueling club, which the Claws were all eager to sign up for. It was a fantastic opportunity for practical instruction. Even if it was with Snape and Lockhart, the two most hated (and arguably, incompetent) professors in Hogwarts.

In the first couple of sessions, Hermione had won against Padma, Mandy Brocklehurst from Ravenclaw, Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin, Susan Bones from Hufflepuff and Neville. She'd only lost to Anthony and Theodore Nott from Slytherin.

Anthony did extremely well. He even beat Draco Malfoy, who attempted to use underhanded Dark Arts spells to throw Tony off his game. Luckily, Tony had prepared beforehand and recognized some of the spells from his Uncle's books. Hermione was extremely proud to call Tony a friend – especially since Malfoy often went out of his way to ridicule her – and ran up to him and gave him a big hug when his duel finished.

But the most talked-about event was when Harry Potter spoke in Parseltongue in his duel with Draco Malfoy.

* * *

Mysterious things had been happening around Potter all year – instead of arriving on the Express like normal students, he and Weasley had arrived in an illegal flying car and proceeded to crash into the Whomping Willow! Hermione had also heard that he had been the victim of a Quidditch accident, but she didn't know the details. [1]

Potter also was rumored to be at least partly responsible for the petrification of Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, for which no one was sorry. Colin Creevy, a first-year Gryffindor who constantly followed Potter around, had also been petrified.

But what was really creepy was the message that was written on the wall of the second floor bathroom after the petrification of Mrs. Norris. It spoke of a Chamber of Secrets and a threat to the enemies of an heir. Despite the rumors, Dumbledore had declared that Potter was not responsible because it was dark magic beyond the capabilities of any second year student. Especially one such as Potter, she secretly thought. Although even she had to admit he was quite good at dueling, perhaps even as good as Tony.

After that episode, she, Tony and Padma began researching the Chamber of Secrets. They hadn't known where to start, as it was not written about in _Hogwarts: A History_. Padma proposed speaking with Professor Binns. He eventually agreed to deliver a lecture to the Ravenclaw/Slytherin class about Salazar Slytherin's building of the Chamber of Secrets and his plan for the Heir of Slytherin to rid Hogwarts of Muggle-borns. Binns reassured the students that it was merely a myth. But all the Claws knew that, especially in the world of magic, myths were spun from truth. Immensely curious – and Hermione was admittedly a bit scared – they set out to plumb the truth of the Chamber of Secrets.

They discovered that the Chamber had allegedly been opened fifty years ago but were unclear about the specifics. Anthony's father sent them an old clipping from _The_ _Daily Prophet_ that reported a female, muggleborn student had been killed by the animal living in the Chamber. But the students were unable to find more details.

They even asked several professors, including Flitwick and Binns, about the Chamber. They had all uncharacteristically brushed the three off. That led to even more questions, such as – why had the matter been covered up? Why had Binns not mentioned it in his lecture? Surely he hadn't forgotten? What were the faculty doing about these episodes of petrification? What precautionary measures were being taken, and who was investigating the crimes? Surely, measures had been taken after the murder to both solve the crime and prevent something similar from happening again?

For awhile, Professor Binns had taken to purposefully avoiding his three best students, which only fueled their curiosity. Obviously, the professors were hiding something. And clearly, they – as the three best students in the school – were the best candidates for finding out just what. [2]

* * *

So when Harry Potter spoke in Parseltongue to the snake Draco Malfoy conjured, many students were scared. Hermione didn't understand why. But Anthony quickly informed her that Parseltongue was a rare gift, possessed most prominently by Salazar Slytherin. After that episode, most students suspected Potter was the Heir of Slytherin. The subsequent petrification of Justin Finch-Fletchley (to whom the snake had been heading) only stoked the fires of paranoia.

Hermione had her doubts. First of all, these were rumors based on a several, unrelated incidents. Primarily, Potter speaking Parseltongue. There was no logical link between speaking Parseltongue and being the Heir of Slytherin. The most that could be said was that Potter's speaking Parseltongue was a necessary but not sufficient condition to make him the Heir of Slytherin. She believed in the doctrine of innocent until proven guilty, and refused to persecute Potter on the grounds of such a logically falliable claim. The students' reaction seemed like more like mob hysteria than anything else. She eventually convinced both Tony and Padma of the tenuity of Ernie Macmillan's claim that Potter was the Heir. But from then on, Tony always seemed a bit more wary around Potter.

Second, students also referred to the incident with Mrs. Norris as substantiating this claim. But Dumbledore had already declared that it was beyond Potter's capabilities to stun Mrs. Norris. All reports of Potter's academics gave credence to the fact that Potter was, at best, an average student. Barring fantastic skill at deception, Potter was simply not capable of such feats. For Christ's sake, he hadn't even been able to solve a little potions riddle last year.

Furthermore, she herself had seen Potter enter and leave Hagrid's hut from her seat at the window of the Ravenclaw common room at the time of Justin's petrification, and had seen the half-giant enter the hut earlier. So unless both Hagrid and Potter were conspiring to petrify muggleborns (which she doubted) or Potter petrified all the others but not Justin (unlikely as the _modus operandi_ was the same for all cases), she was almost sure Potter was not the Heir.

Third, Potter was a half-blood. She found it difficult to believe that a blood purist like Slytherin would have accepted a half-blood heir with muggle blood from his muggleborn mother running through his veins.

Fourth and finally, speaking Parseltongue seemed to have no relation at all to the petrification. Or at least, there was no established link between the two. Hermione suggested, and Padma agreed, to study this possibility as part of their DADA study group. After all, she had no desire to become the next victim. And even if the monster only attacked muggleborns, there was no evidence that they could not or would not attack purebloods. As such, Padma was still scared and thought it best to be prepared.

Tony was a different story. He didn't want to get any more involved in the issue, and thought that they were only tempting fate by investigating Slytherin's monster. Unlike Hermione, his desire to stick to the known – academics – outweighed his intellectual curiosity about the mythical Chamber of Secrets. He was also befuddled, and more than a little angry, at Hermione's desire to solve the puzzle and clear Potter. As far as Tony was concerned, the farther they were from Potter the troublemaker, the better.

It was their first real fight as friends, and Hermione endured several days of silence from Tony until Padma locked them all in a classroom and forced them to carve out a rational compromise. She and Padma agreed to do their Slytherin research on their own time. They would continue the DADA study club as before and not force Tony to do research on Slytherin's monster. They were making progress on creating a three-way long-distance communication system based on mirrors, and Tony was determined to get it working before the school year ended.

The argument over research on Slytherin's monster became moot once it was clear that the information seemed to be sealed away somewhere and none of the faculty wanted to speak about it. The only other information they managed to dig up was that the murdered female student from fifty years ago had been killed in a bathroom.

* * *

Hermione was worried about the attacks, however. She corresponded regularly with her parents. They were afraid that because she might become a target. Like other parents of muggleborns, they were considering pulling her out of Hogwarts – at least temporarily until it became safer. But her parents wanted to wait and see what the Patils and Goldsteins did first. Both of her friends' parents advised the Grangers via owl to wait it out, as the attacks had seemed to taper off in the last few months. It might not happen again, and then the Grangers would have disrupted their daughters' education for nothing. They also pointed out that Hermione, Padma and Tony had been working on self-defense in their DADA study groups, and thus were better prepared than the petrified students had been.

* * *

Having been targeted for bullying at her old school, Hermione felt sorry for Potter. He looked increasingly miserable as almost all of the school illogically turned on him. So when she ran into him alone in the hall one day, she put one hand on his arm to stop him. Then she told him in no uncertain terms why she did not believe the rumors and laid out the four logical reasons why.

He didn't seem to follow her logic properly, but did appreciate her reassurance and smiled lopsidedly at her. She also told Neville when they partnered up in Herbology that she didn't believe the rumors, and he was visibly grateful for her support. Neville assured her that it was not Potter. He told her that Potter hadn't known he was a Parselmouth, and was very torn up about the rumors.

Hermione was encouraged when, later that day, she saw Potter in the library for the first time that year. He was looking up books on monsters. She assumed he was also researching the identity of Slytherin's monster and a possible link between Parseltongue and petrification. Hermione told him she and Padma had been looking into the subject as well, and promised to let him know if they found anything.

She did not see Potter in the library again. She attributed this to his general lack of commitment to his studies and Weasley's poor influence. She did not believe, as Tony argued one day, that Potter thought he no longer had to research it now that he knew Hermione and Padma were doing so. She wasn't as offended as Anthony thought she would be at this thought. It meant that Potter knew she and Padma were the best at research, and trusted them with it. That Potter, a Wizarding celebrity, needed _her_ help. It made her feel quite accomplished indeed.

A few weeks passed without much to show for on the research side. She continued to hold onto her number one position in classes and their study group was going as well as before. While in the past she might have resisted the idea of studying with her biggest competition (Tony and Padma were number three and two, respectively), she recognized that she was only number one because of their help. They supported and quizzed each other on their knowledge of the subjects so, in the end it was their innate testing and writing skill that determined their class standing. Merit based on pure intelligence, rather than mere knowledge retention. And she wanted to win a fair fight and beat her competitors at their best, not when they were at a disadvantage.

* * *

**NOTES:**

[1] Without friends who play Quidditch, I doubt Hermione would bother going to the games or keeping up to date about which team was winning.

[2] In the actual book, the professors provide very little help to the Trio in solving the case of Slytherin's monster. They also don't appear to do much to solve the crimes, catch the culprit, inform the students about the reality of what happened fifty years previous, or attempt to prevent more attacks. Indeed, it almost seems like they are covering up the incidents – like the Myrtle incident was covered up. Given the fact that a deadly monster is wandering around school, the faculty are either inept or negligent or both. Their negligence is highlighted when, in this fic, there is a group of inquisitive, investigative students who want to better defend themselves and to solve the mysteries of the attacks so they can go on with their academic careers. We'll learn more about why the professors are so silent later. I can't promise it won't be a bit of a conspiracy theory, and will contribute to the erosion of Hermione's blind belief in authority.

* * *

Remember to review!


	3. Year 2, Part 2: Luna and Myrtle

Disclaimer: Not claiming Harry Potter.

AN: I decided to begin dividing the school years into chapters. This is the second part of Year Two.

Thank you for your kind reviews. I will respond to them in the next couple of days, as I was inspired to write this chapter and didn't want to stop. I tried to address some of the suggestions and questions raised in the reviews - in this chapter, an introduction to Luna, which I very much enjoyed writing.

Hope you enjoy, and please keep reviewing!

* * *

**The Ravenclaw Chronicles: ****Year Two**

**Part Two: Luna and Myrtle**

* * *

An interesting development within Ravenclaw was a new first-year student, Luna Lovegood. Or, as some students called her, "Looney." Her father published _The_ _Quibbler_, an odd magazine that was tabloid-like in its accuracy and fantasy-like in its content.

She lived in her own fantasy world of crazy imaginary animals like the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, Nargles and Humdingers. Beyond constantly insisting such creatures were real, Luna would also spout off far-flung conspiracy theories. Many Claws – including Hermione, Tony and Padma – had wondered how she ever was sorted into Ravenclaw. She seemed so air-headed and distracted all the time that her sorting came to be regarded in the House as a joke.

What was worse was that she never listened to reason or planted her feet on the ground of logic, instead blithely insisting on the accuracy of her theories. She would interrupt conversations with talk of her imaginary animals or crazy plots. People didn't know how to respond to such far-fetched ideas, so the conversation would often stall or students would move away from her. People who attempted to talk to her were only frustrated when she was never able to give a logical explanation for her theories. She often only responded by insisting, for example, that the existence of Nargles was the truth and as if it should be obvious to all. No matter how much they tried, the other Claws could never reason with her .

As a result, nobody felt like they could talk to her. After awhile, people stopped trying. It seemed that Luna didn't seem capable of holding any sort of logical fluid conversation with her rapid jumps in topic, unfounded claims and talk of imaginary creatures and conspiracies. Within the first month of school, most of the Claws had begun purposefully evading her so as to avoid an awkward attempt at a conversation. The general consensus in Ravenclaw by Yule Break was that Luna Lovegood was so crazy that even the Sorting Hat had been confounded into making an error in sorting her.

Hermione was especially puzzled when it came to dealing with Luna. Hermione's world was founded upon logic and reason. Luna's completely irrational worldview threw her for a spin. Hermione really did not know what to do about it. It was easy to go along with the other Claws and dismiss Luna. Since they were in different years and didn't have classes together, it wasn't that hard to simply avoid her or ignore her if she attempted to interrupt one of their conversations.

But Hermione began to get annoyed at Luna's illogical, irrelevant interruptions and one day lost her temper. She yelled at the girl to stop interrupting her and Padma's conversation on cleaning charms, which immediately caused Luna to blink and turn away. Later, she heard that Luna had ended up crying in her dormitory. Hermione felt remorseful and apologized the very next day for her overblown response, but the damage was done. Hermione was ashamed to admit that she was very relieved to not have to deal with Luna again.

* * *

All this changed after Yule Break, once students received the results of their mid-term exams. Hermione was delighted at her scores, which would place her once again at the top of her class.

But the biggest surprise was that Luna Lovegood seemed poised to take the top spot in her year. The general reaction amongst the Claws was disbelief that Looney could be so smart. The first-years' reaction was worse. Some were convinced Luna had cheated The List. But when Flitwick confirmed her top grade in his Charms class, students started rumors that she had cheated in classes and tricked the professors into thinking she was smart. Others accused her of cheating her housemates by pretending to be crazy and dumb as a strategy for throwing them off and ensuring that she got ahead.

Many first years were bitter because they didn't feel that she deserved it and that they had worked harder or were smarter than Luna and, thus, deserved the top spot more. They refused to believe that a girl who regularly talked to imaginary animals and had never been seen in the library had beaten them academically. Students' disbelief at Luna's rankings quickly turned into resentment and anger.

Two weeks after break, they were eating dinner in the Great Hall when Padma tried to talk Hermione and Anthony into helping Luna. Hermione was reluctant to get involved in anything concerning the kooky first-year. Tony couldn't see how she was any of their business, especially as he hardly knew her. Padma dropped the subject once Rebecca Clarke and Andrew White, both first years, sat down and asked for some advice on their T-fig homework. [1] Rebecca seemed to have a particular grudge against Luna.

A couple days later, Padma insisted that they get together to properly discuss Luna. Padma said that Luna was now being bullied by their bitter housemates, who would steal and hide her clothing. Hermione did remember seeing Luna wearing mismatched socks and ill-fitting clothes a couple times this past week. But she also wore radish earrings and bottle cap necklaces, so Hermione had thought nothing of it at the time. Padma said that the other first years were now bullying Luna. They ridiculed her and accused her of cheating to get her grades.

Padma said she'd seen one such episode yesterday, and was ashamed of how their fellow Claws were acting. The Ravenclaw second-years had just been let out of T-fig, and Padma was on her way back to her dormitory to get her Potions books. (Anthony and Hermione had gone straight to the library.) Luna had been walking by herself to Charms when the other first-years caught up to her and began taunting her. The girl had done nothing to respond to the teasing, simply standing there and then crying softly to herself once the others had left. When she saw Padma, Luna fled into the second-floor lavatory. Padma followed at a distance, and heard from outside the lavatory Luna crying and talking to someone. It was a ghost of a Hogwarts student named Myrtle, who had been bullied herself by a vicious girl named Olive Hornby. Myrtle had also been a Ravenclaw, and she had run into that very lavatory to cry when she was killed.

Padma was distraught at the similarities between Myrtle's situation and Luna's. She made some discreet inquiries and discovered that the ghost in the second-floor girls lavatory was dubbed 'Moaning Myrtle' because she was always crying, even in death. It was truly tragic.

So the next day after T-fig, Padma drew Anthony and Hermione into an empty classroom and pleaded with them to help her rescue Luna. Padma especially appealed to Hermione's own experience with bullying and having difficulty fitting in.

Padma wanted them to invite Luna to their study group in the library one day, which would show the first-years that they accepted the validity of her ranking and her intelligence. Being the most envied DADA study group amongst the lower year Ravenclaws, Padma was convinced that even this simple act would extend Luna some protection in their House.

Ravenclaw was a meritocracy, where the most respected students were those with the best grades. As the top three in their year, Hermione, Anthony and Padma were very well respected. They had never invited any other second year to study with them, much less a first year. They had even refused entry to a couple of students who'd wanted to join. They had wanted to preserve the quality of their study group, and ensure that every member was of equal caliber.

As such, Padma believed that if they invited Luna to their group – for even one session, as a symbolic gesture – it would help stop the teasing. Both Tony and Hermione initially saw the plan as sacrificing the integrity of the group. Hermione was also worried about how they would interact with Luna in the study group. They'd have to pretend to listen to her and work with her, otherwise it would never work. If they invited her to their table and then proceeded to ignore her, the plan probably wouldn't achieve the desired effect. But how could they converse with her when she was always so irrational and off-topic?

Hermione thought back to their argument about the Luna situation:

* * *

"_But Padma, this is not our problem! Why do we need to get involved?" insisted Hermione._

_Padma stood up, angry at her friends for not being more understanding. "Of course its our problem! Haven't you heard the saying, 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'?"_

_Hermione slumped in recognition of Padma's point. "Generally attributed to Edmund Burke, Irish political philosopher and statesman, 1770."_

_Padma turned to Tony. _

"_Hey, don't look at me!" He exclaimed. Narrowing his eyes, he asked, "And are you really equating the teasing of Luna Lovegood with large-scale political __**evil**__?"_

"_No," Padma demurred. "Of course not. But can you rationally say that such bullying is __**good**__?" She turned to Hermione. "Of all people, I would expect you to go to Luna's defense."  
_

_Hermione raised her eyebrows at Padma, challenging her to continue._

"_Yes, you," affirmed Padma. She started pacing back and forth in the front of the classroom. "You say you're all about equal opportunity, but you dismissed Luna at the beginning of the year just because she thinks differently than you. Obviously, she's smart. I don't buy the rumors about her cheating. You may think she's illogical but clearly she has a different mental process. And you shouldn't look down on her or write her off because of that. So, really, there are four reasons why you – some of this applies to you as well, Tony – should be personally invested in this: _

_One, you were bullied and teased in your elementary school so you know what it's like. You had trouble fitting in at first too. Would you wish any of that on anyone else? Especially someone like Luna, who is generally harmless, and innocent of wrongdoing? Bullying can cause real harm, physical and emotional. Just look at the case of Myrtle._

_Two, you probably would've stepped in earlier if the first-year thought along more conventional logical structures. But because Luna's different, you've been indifferent to her suffering. And because she thinks so differently from you, and is not as impressed by your intelligence and ranking – don't give me that face Hermione, you know it's true – as she would be if she were a straight-up, uber-logical student. So you're passively discriminating against her for being different._

_Three, because allowing this bullying to go on is being complicit in it. Look me in the eye and tell me that this bullying isn't harmful. Maybe you can claim ignorance, but here I am – telling you about it and laying out a plan to stop it. If you choose to not help Luna, you will be actively making a decision to implicitly approve of their actions. Can you really condone this kind of bullying? _

_Finally, four. We're Claws. We're not bullies. Bullying itself is irrational, and stems from the other students' resentment of Luna for her intelligence and their own insecurity about their shortcomings. It also comes from ignorance. They, like you, don't understand her or her admittedly unique way of thinking. So you lash out against her. Why are we tolerating such harmful, irrational behavior in our House? I think its despicable that another Ravenclaw girl was the victim of bullying, and was actually killed partly as a result of it! What if it happened again? It would be a horrible tradition for our House to uphold."_

_Padma sat back down. "The plan is really simple. It doesn't cost us anything, but a few hours of our time. We even get her help on the Slytherin issue!" (Here Hermione and Tony scoffed, unbelieving. Padma continued on, undeterred.) "It will improve the social atmosphere in Ravenclaw. It's a good start for the kind of work we want to do in the future – helping the marginalized." She turned to Hermione again. "You asked me why. I'm asking you, why not?"_

_Padma was rarely this emotional. Hermione was the passionate crusader in their group, and easily riled about subjects she felt strongly about. But Padma was the most sensitive, observant and socially conscious out of all of them, and when she put her mind to something she usually got her way. Not because she was spoiled, but because she was smart and knew – more than Hermione, at least in social situations – what was right and wrong._

_Hermione looked at Tony. He shrugged, and then they both conceded. Tony had one last question though. "Why not bring this to the Prefects, or Flitwick, again? Why not let them take care of it, it is their job after all."_

_Padma narrowed her eyes at him. "You know as well as I that will only make things worse and make her look like a tattle-tale, even if we are the ones who did the telling."_

_Tony held his hands up in defeat."Ok, ok, let's get it over with."_

* * *

In the end, they agreed to hold an 'extra' DADA study session where they would all research Slytherin's monster. Tony didn't really care about the research and wouldn't be annoyed if Luna interrupted. Neither Padma nor Hermione had been making much progress, so they would have the time – and hopefully, the patience – to concentrate on pretending to listen attentively to Luna. They would do it on Saturday afternoon to maximize public exposure. Hermione was nominated to actually ask Luna, because she had been so publicly short with the girl earlier in the year. For the plan to work, the three of them had to convince the other Claws that they respected Luna's _unique_ brand of intelligence.

The next day, the three friends approached Luna in a crowded common room to invite her to join their 'extra' DADA study session on Saturday. The room went quiet once Hermione stopped in front of Luna, who only cocked her head quizzically at the older girl. Hermione cleared her throat and asked if she would come to their special DADA study session tomorrow. Luna got angry at first, thinking it was a joke, but Hermione quickly reassured her that the invitation was genuine and was from all three of them. She told Luna to come to their table at the library Saturday at 3 in the afternoon.

* * *

When Luna arrived that Saturday, the three friends told her what they were planning on researching. Luna was enthusiastic, partly because she believed the monster might be the elusive Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Other Claws looked on from nearby tables as the four students spent nearly three hours researching and discussing. After the first hour or so, most first-years had resigned themselves to this new reality. They began studying in earnest, rather than attempting to covertly spy on Luna.

The session ended on a good note, with Luna promising to ask her dad if anything had been written in _The Quibbler_ about the event fifty years ago. Padma, Hermione and Anthony were not optimistic about this lead given the usual quality of the magazine, but thanked her anyway. They did not know it at the time, but the article would dramatically change their lives.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Luna stopped Hermione in the common room and lent her the old issue of _The Quibbler_ from 50 years ago. Her dad had just sent it to her. Her grandfather had been publisher of _The_ _Quibbler_ at that time, and she hoped that the article would be useful. Luna then thanked Hermione for extending an olive branch, and told her that her clothes had been returned and the bullying was getting better. Embarassed, Hermione turned a little red and told Luna that she should really be thanking Padma instead. Luna nodded, made an odd comment and walked away.

If _The Quibbler_ was to be believed – and this particular issue did appear to be more professional – the victim was Myrtle Green, age 12, from Wigan. She was found dead in the second floor girl's bathroom.

This discovery shocked Hermione. What if 'Moaning Myrtle' was the ghost of the girl killed fifty years ago by Slytherin's monster?

Hermione ran to the second-floor girls lavatory and asked Myrtle to tell her the story about her death. Myrtle was annoying, whining about how people were only interested in how she died and how she'd wished people were this interested in her when she was alive. Hermione wondered who else had visited Myrtle.

After telling Myrtle that she and her friends had helped stop the teasing of Luna Lovegood, Myrtle agreed to tell the story of her death. She told Hermione that she'd run into one of the stalls after being teased about her glasses by Olive Hornby. Then a boy had come into the lavatory. There were some hissing and creaking sounds. Annoyed, she threw open the stall door and told the boy to go away. She heard more hissing but the last thing she saw were arresting yellow eyes before everything faded to black and she died.

Hermione remembered from the Potter-Malfoy duel that Parseltongue involved a lot of hissing. What if the monster was a snake, and so the Heir had to be a Parselmouth to command him? Hermione was surprised she hadn't thought of this obvious connection before – probably since she'd been denying the existence of a connection between Parseltongue and the Heir for several months now. She ran from Myrtle's lavatory to the library, where Hermione flipped through a bestiary dictionary to the section on snakes. Hermione was looking for a snake that could petrify humans. She gasped when she found her answer. She hurriedly wrote down the book title and page number on a scrap piece of paper, packed up her things, grabbed her vanity mirror and did her best to run to the Ravenclaw common room without looking straight ahead.

Unfortunately, she'd failed to see little Ginny Weasley spying on her in the library or the petrifying yellow basilisk eyes, even reflected in the mirror, until it was too late.

* * *

This part of the story she'd only heard in bits and pieces from Tony, Padma and Harry. Apparently Harry had been touched by her faith in him. She had been the first person outside of the Trio to tell him that she didn't believe he was the Heir. He'd reportedly visited her in the Hospital Wing every week. Anthony and Padma knew because they alternated visiting her every other day.

A few months later, Neville was petrified. He was the first pureblood to be affected. After Neville was petrified, Padma and Tony's parents wrote them letters expressing concern and questioning whether they wanted to remain at Hogwarts or transfer elsewhere. Padma and Anthony had some serious discussions with their parents, who visited them at school, about the advantages and disadvantages of staying at Hogwarts. Hermione's petrification had scared them by hitting so close to home. She'd been caught unaware, even with all her smarts and their DADA prep. Neville's petrification showed them that the Heir apparently had no trouble petrifying purebloods as well as muggleborns.

This combination convinced the Patils and Goldsteins to pull their children out of Hogwarts. They arranged for a private tutor for Parvati, Padma and Anthony, as well as some other students whose parents they were friendly with. The goal was to parallel the Hogwarts curriculum so the children could take final exams with everyone else. They held the private tutoring sessions at Goldstein Manor, a large property near Cambridge. Most students in the group lived near London and Cambridge.

The Grangers were distraught, but could not visit Hogwarts. The Patils and Goldsteins promised to regularly check on Hermione. Anthony and Padma still flooed every week to visit Hermione at the Hogwarts, and brought her homework and study materials as if she was in the tutoring group with them. They planned for her to join once the Mandrakes had matured and the antidote was administered. Sometimes they ran into Harry Potter, visiting Neville or Hermione.

There were whispers about the Ministry closing Hogwarts down until the threat had been neutralized. Hagrid disappeared; the word around school was that he had been sent to Azkaban by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, on the suspicion of opening the Chamber of Secrets. Hagrid was allegedly responsible for opening the Chamber fifty years ago and killing the muggleborn student, which led them all to wonder why he had ever been allowed to return to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was also suspended, to the students' horror. They all felt even less safe now that Dumbledore was not there to protect them, and many students seriously considered transferring or getting private tutoring for the rest of the year. Curfew was moved forward, with students forbidden from wandering around the halls except when they were going to classes or meals. Quidditch was suspended. Library hours were also cut down. For the students who remained at Hogwarts, even the Claws chafed at the restricted existence of going straight from breakfast to classes to lunch to classes to dinner and then to their dormitories. There was no longer much time for leisurely wandering around, exploring the grounds or reading in the library.

The only good thing that came of Neville's petrification was that many students no longer believed Harry was the Heir of Slytherin. Even they could not believe that Harry would turn on one of the Golden Trio.

* * *

Once, while Harry was talking to a petrified Hermione in the hospital wing, (_'Honestly,' Hermione thought, 'When she was petrified? It wasn't like she could've responded, so what was the point?'_), he noticed that she'd been holding something in her left fist. He pried it out of her grasp. It was the scrap of paper with the book title and page number. He'd hurried to the library to find the reference. He was shocked when he found the answer, but it made sense as basilisks were often regarded as the King of Snakes.

Harry had then told his friend Ron and informed the professors about Hermione's suspicions. After discovering Lockhart was a lying cheat who'd never accomplished any of the feats in his books – he'd stolen the memories from the real heroes – Harry eventually succeeded in killing the basilisk, destroying the diary, and rescuing a possessed Ginny Weasley.

Harry had told her about the events in the Chamber once she'd been released from the Hospital Wing. He told her that a Tom Marvolo Riddle, not Hagrid, had been responsible for opening the Chamber fifty years ago, killing Myrtle and creating the diary. It seemed that the diary had been imbued with a part of Tom's soul, as Harry had reported to actually corresponding with Tom through it. Harry had also said that he'd even been able to enter one of Tom's memories through the diary. Tom had shown him Hagrid getting arrested for killing Myrtle fifty years ago, which had led him and Ron to confront Hagrid. Tom had possessed Ginny Weasley through the diary and used her body to release the basilisk and petrify Mrs. Norris and the students. He had then planned to kill her and take control of her body, but Harry had stopped him in time.

Hagrid was released from Azkaban. Lockhart was sent to St. Mungos' Spell Damage Ward as he had accidentally Oblivated himself when his attempt to wipe Harry and Ron's memories backfired. Harry also told her that he believed Lucius Malfoy had slipped Ginny Weasley the diary at the beginning of the school year, a rumor substantiated by the fact that Malfoy was fired from his post as Hogwarts Governor. [2]

The students from Padma and Anthony's tutoring group returned to Hogwarts, assured by a newly-reinstated Dumbledore that the threat had passed. The private tutors had done a good job of following the Hogwarts curriculum, and they didn't have much trouble catching up.

* * *

Hermione remained in the Hospital Wing. The mandrakes did not mature until mid-May, by which time she had already missed three months worth of classes. Her parents were relieved she was OK. But Hermione was furious and distraught that she had so much to catch up on and so little time before final exams. Padma and Anthony helped her as much as they could, giving her notes, study guides, outlines and helping her whenever possible. But they had just caught up as well and their time was limited. Even if helping Hermione was good review for Padma and Anthony, Hermione could not - and did not - expect them to sacrifice their final exam preparation to help her play catch up.

Salvation came in the form of Professor Flitwick. He told her that the faculty had seen the formerly- petrified students struggling. They had decided to give the formerly-petrified students a one-month long grace period at the beginning of summer, and permit students to delay their final exams until the end of this period. This solution meant that she was still in the running for top of The List.

Hermione was ecstatic that she would have more time to catch up. She was even more thrilled when Padma and Anthony both secured their parents' permission to contract a private tutor for the month of the grace period. Padma and Anthony had wanted to make sure that they learned everything from this year properly, which had been difficult when the continuity of the classes had been disrupted by the basilisk. Even though they had a fantastic private tutor while away from Hogwarts, they took no chances with their education. They also hoped to cover in greater depth some of the harder concepts they'd learned this past year or go into fun variations on the potions and spells they'd studied. They were, after all, not just competing with Hogwarts students when it came to their OWLs and NEWTs. It had become clear to the three friends that there were major deficiencies in a Hogwarts education. So even if they were the top of their class at Hogwarts, they still might not do as well as they hoped on their wizarding exams. Their parents had agreed, and the Goldsteins once again agreed to host the tutoring sessions.

Hermione wanted to catch up and properly prepare for her final exams. She planned on learning new material with her friends in the tutoring sessions, and reviewing the material she'd missed in her spare time in the evenings. She was sure she could do it, especially since she had already been ahead when the incident happened. Now that she had two months to prepare for finals, she became less crazed and was able to actually relax a bit.

The Grangers were extremely grateful to the Goldsteins for their generosity, and had no problem splitting the cost of hiring the tutor. They were, however, not that happy with Anthony's suggestion that Hermione live with the Goldsteins for the duration of the month. The Grangers did not have a Floo and Hermione did not like the idea of taking the Knight Bus every day to Goldstein Manor, especially since it would take over an hour each way, and Floo was instantaneous. The issue was resolved when Padma invited Hermione to stay with the Patils for a month, so they could Floo together every day to Tony's house. The Grangers were much more amenable to the idea of their daughter staying with a girl.

* * *

Luna was doing better. By the end of the year, it seemed that some first-years were now pretending to believe her theories, thinking it might help their grades or that Luna might help them study. Hermione was immensely grateful to Luna for her help with research on Slytherin's monster. She did not blame Luna at all. If anything, it was her fault for rushing off on her own and not seeking out Tony and Padma's help. But that might just have gotten them petrified as well. So it seemed that their research on Slytherin's monster had been doomed from the start to be a losing situation. If they had failed in their research, they would've been miserably frustrated. But Hermione had succeeded only to be petrified. Hermione had learned the consequences of curiosity the hard way. Naturally, she was wary of meddling again but also knew that it had been the right thing to do. Even with what she knew now, she wasn't sure what she would change if she had the opportunity to do it over again.

Hermione also thanked Harry for visiting her at the hospital wing every week. He blushed and thanked her for her research on identifying Slytherin's monster – without which he might never have defeated the basilisk. She decided that they were now friends, of a sort.

Everyone now knew Harry had not been the Heir, and some (like Padma) properly apologized. Others regarded Harry as a hero for killing the Basilisk. One of the worst was Ginny Weasley, who now saw him as her own personal hero and had taken to following him around incessantly. It was sad but amusing. [3]

Hermione and Neville continued to get along well. Sometimes he would help him with his Potions work. He was very skilled at Herbology and gave her some useful tips as well. She liked Neville; he was a sweet, kind boy who seemed like he could not hurt a fly.

The same could not be said for his 'friend,' Ronald Weasley. He was an absolute boor. She now refused to help him at all. The first time he'd asked if he could see her Transfiguration homework so he could check his work, she'd caught him literally copying her answers. He'd lied to her and hadn't even started his Transfiguration homework! She was furious – and, strangely enough, so was he. He didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with what he did, even though he'd lied to her and was blatantly cheating off her. He had the gall to yell at her for being a bookworm and always being in the library after that. Hermione told him he was an ungrateful, dumb, good-for-nothing prat who would either fail out of Hogwarts or end up working as a server at the Leaky Cauldron when he graduated. [4] Then she stomped out, rushing to relay the whole sordid affair to her friends.

Padma said that she could have told Hermione that Ron would do that – apparently, he'd tried it with nearly all the Gryffindors in their year. Not that any were worth copying from. Apparently he'd either run out of willing sops in Gryffindor or decided to copy off of someone worthwhile for a change. Hermione refused to play his game, and spread the word in Ravenclaw about Ron's cheating. Ron pulled off the stunt with several Ravenclaw boys (according to Tony, Terry Boot and Michael Corner had been the victims) before the entire House decided to blacklist him from all study groups and academic help. Hermione felt very vindicated when she heard that.

She became angry one day when Neville approached her and asked her to help him and Ron with their Potions work. Hermione had refused to help Ron but agreed to help Neville. Later on she learned that her snub had not deterred Ron; he simply copied off Neville. Finally, she decided there was nothing she could do if her friend was somehow also friends with a lazy slob. It wasn't like Neville copied her work or even asked to see it. Also, he only rarely asked her for help so she wouldn't refuse him when he did.

Personally, she thought he didn't ask often because he was afraid of her temper (it was legendary and so was her feud with Ron). And also because the Golden Trio usually waited until last minute to do their work and she could not always be found to give them answers. More often than not, they attempted to trudge along by themselves (highly unsuccessful, from what she'd heard of their grades) or get other Gryffindors to help them. Padma told her even Parvati was extremely annoyed with their antics. That was funny, because Parvati had never really cared that much about academics in the first place. And she was only an average student. The Trio must be desperate.

* * *

Hermione smiled at she arrived at the compartment she shared with Padma and Anthony. She'd run into the snack trolley on her way back from the bathroom, and selected some of her friends' favorites to share with them.

"Hey Hermione," started Anthony, "My parents want to know if you'd like to come visit our villa in Cannes in August. Padma's coming."

Hermione almost squealed. "Oh, that sounds like so much fun! I love La Côte d'Azur!"

"Great, so ask your parents when we get to the station. My parents can answer any questions they may have. It's going to be a great way to relax after final exams."

She smiled, taking the seat next to Anthony and happily chatting with the two of them about all the wonderful things they could eat and do in France. They also agreed to follow-up on their plans from the beginning of the year to investigate Beauxbatons' DADA curriculum and see how it compared to Hogwarts'. And while they had not yet succeeded in creating the communication mirrors, they were determined to finish the project by the end of their tutoring together – when they would really split up for the summer. Tony was excited to show them his family's library, and told them that there might be some books that could help them charm the mirrors properly.

Hermione was once again extremely grateful for her closest friends. But she was also happy to have expanded her social circle this year, to include both Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood (she now fancied herself the younger girl's protector of sorts). She also had gotten to know Neville a bit better, and become friendlier with some of the Ravenclaw boys that Tony liked to hang out with sometimes – Terry Boot and Kevin Entwhistle.

She was happy for her friends, who were currently ranked numbers one and two on The List (Padma beat Anthony in Potions). While she was not yet sure how she would rank this year on The List, she was absolutely determined to be number one next year and would not let anyone or anything – especially unfounded rumors about Harry Potter – distract her. [5]

* * *

**NOTES:**

[1] T-fig, a nickname for Transfiguration class. Borrowed from Bluemidget's fantastic D/Hr fic, "Pansy's Volcano." She also said she borrowed it from another author. Given my own propensity to shorten class titles in high school and college, I agree with her that it sounds like a very plausible short-hand rendition for Transfiguration. (i.e. I once took a class on "Technology and National Security" and referred to it as "TechSec")

[2] Harry doesn't tell her everything. But he doesn't know her that well. They're only sort of friends at this point, and mainly have a working relationship.

[3] If you can't tell from my profile, I really hate Ginny Weasley. In fact, I often refer to her in my mind as the 'Gin-bitch,' the 'Weasel-bitch,' or 'Gin-Gin the Erection Killer' (from the entertaining and bawdy sexual parody, Harry Potter and the Sword of Gryffindor). But I promise to only tastefully and rationally bash her on the basis of her crazy fan-girlishness. But seriously, it is creepy that she is enamoured of Harry due to the myth of the Boy-Who-Lived. The myth of the Boy-Who-Lived is a baby that was almost killed by Voldemort. Harry the baby had no special characteristics of valor or whatsoever. He didn't even really do anything to repel Voldemort. He was a one-year-old baby! A baby, with no personality traits, that just gargles, cries, eats and poops. So either she fell in love with a one-year-old baby that survived through a freak accident/an unknown super power or completely made-up tales of Harry Potter published by children's book writers in Magical Britain. In which case she falls in love with a made up character. Either way, it's pretty creepy.

Given that the events in my story happen more rapidly than in COS, there is now a month or so between Harry's defeat of the basilisk and the end of school (according to Wikipedia, the academic school year in Scotland mostly runs from August-late June/early July. We know that Hogwarts starts in September though, so perhaps it doesn't end until mid or late-July, like schools in England and Wales.) Or, I go into more depth than Rowling about what happens in the school post-basilisk slaying.

I'd think that eleven-year old Ginny Weasley would feel very special at being rescued by Harry Potter. She'd definitely see him as her personal hero, and feel emboldened in her interaction with him because she would think that they now share a special connection because he rescued her. She also believes that Harry's actions are proof positive of his special feelings for her, only he is a dense boy and is not sure what these special feelings are. Or, at the very least, his rescue of her will cause him to develop these special feelings if he did not have them before. Because she is his damsel in distress and he is her hero. So I can imagine her following him around rather than running away from him now, if only to speed up their arrival at their happily ever after.

[4] Whenever my friends or I slacked off in school, we'd make fun of each other by saying that we'd eventually end up working in McDonalds. It ended up being the ultimate insult/joke, allowing people to declare a certain depth of passion (I want to be a fashion designer so bad I'd do it even if it means I have to work at McDonalds) or serving as a warning against laziness (my parents would tell me to work harder or I might end up working at Micky D's). I'd imagine that working at the Leaky Cauldron might be an equivalent insult/joke in the Wizarding World.

[5] I imagine Hermione would believe that she had been petrified because she had discovered the identity of Slytherin's monster and that she would not have been petrified if she'd kept to her own business. She'd still resent Harry a little bit because it was her need to discredit those unfounded rumors that ultimately led to her petrification and missing three months of class. Even if she gets a month long grace period to further prepare for her classes, it is still annoying to have to review schoolwork for another month and be essentially behind the other students in her class. She really resents not being on top of things and not being done when others have already finished. As such, she resolves to learn from her mistakes next year and give her all to her academics as she somehow feels that she 'slacked off' this second year by getting distracted by her 'extracurricular' research on Slytherin's monster. She's inquisitive and curious about solving mysteries and thinks herself responsible for figuring out the puzzle, but prizes academics above all else. Especially since other people ended up surviving and completely the year without falling behind because they were not petrified. So she is going to put in all her effort next year to being the best academically, because she really misses it. Even if she does end up first on The List once she takes her final exams at the end of the grace period, right now she is not even on The List because she hasn't finished yet and that is terribly unsettling for her.

* * *

Don't forget to review!

_Spoilers for the next chapter: Harry and Hermione begin a correspondence over the summer; Harry learns about his academically gifted mother from an unlikely source; Padma, Hermione and Anthony take on the Hogwarts Governors; a disastrous meet-up in Diagon Alley; and a strange encounter with Ginny Weasley on the Express._


	4. Year 3, Part 1: Summer Niçoise

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I would not have made the Weasleys the paragon of family-hood because calm, rational, intelligent, progressive and *gasp* even richer families can be supportive and loving too. (I'm not speaking from experience but from theory. Not that I didn't grow up in a loving family. Right, I'll stop now...)

AN: I think, for the most part, every year will consist of three chapters: 1 for the summer, 1 for the first half of the school year (until Yule Break) and 1 for the second half of the school year (from January to the end of school).

Keep in mind that everything is written in retrospective. I'm considering ditching this format but am keeping it for now. So, for the next three chapters, everything is from the perspective of Hermione at the beginning of her Fourth School Year thinking back to her Third School Year. That's why we start with the first day of Hermione's Fourth Year of School and abruptly jump to the Beginning of her Summer Break after Second Year (because each year segment includes the summer previous + the entire school year).

Many thanks to my betas, Lux Luthor and Radical, for their fantastic suggestions and impeccable insight.

* * *

**The Ravenclaw Chronicles: Year Three**

**Part One: Summer ****Niçoise**

* * *

_The First Day of Hermione's Fourth Year of School_

Hermione ran through the barrier at Platform 9 ¾, searching for a head of messy black hair. She spotted Harry next to Sirius, and ran toward him, enveloping him in a tight hug.

"Harry!" She exclaimed, "Oh I'm so glad you're here. Are you OK? Are you injured in any way? We were already in our tents and the Goldsteins portkeyed us away as soon as we heard the commotion so I didn't have anytime to check up on what happened to you – "

Harry pulled back but kept a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm Ok, really. Don't worry. We sort of had a run in with Draco Malfoy – "

"What!" screamed Hermione, turning to Sirius. "What happened?"

Harry patted her shoulder. "Its OK," he murmured. "We were fine. He just goaded us a bit about the attack. And then I lost my wand. Fudge came, and discovered someone used my wand to conjure the Dark Mark." Hermione gasped, but Harry spoke to preempt her question. "No I didn't get in trouble for it but this poor house elf did and was fired. And don't worry, Sirius already gave me hell for running off on my own with Ron and Neville."

"Oh, Harry," murmured Hermione, drawing him in again for a hug, "I'm so relieved you're OK."

Grinning roughishly at her, Sirius said, "Oh, don't worry. He's hiding some deep emotional pain," he winced as Harry elbowed him but continued on valiantly, "Make sure to give him some tender loving care at school, will you?"

Blushing at the implication, Hermione and Harry hurriedly stepped away from each other. She began turning her head to look for Padma and Anthony, and was relieved to find that they'd followed her. She called them over and turned again to Harry. "Well, we should be getting on the train now..."

Harry looked down and ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah..."

"So I guess I'll see you at school then..."

He stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah..." Suddenly he looked up at her, grinning, "unless you think you can handle being in a compartment with Ron for two hours."

Hermione groaned in disgust before quickly waving goodbye and walking off with Padma and Anthony. She thought back to last year, which had brought her and Harry so much closer together...

* * *

_The Summer Following Second Year_

It was only when they stepped onto the platform at King's Cross that Hermione realized the flaw in their plan. After not seeing her for several months and worrying about her while she had been petrified, her parents would want to actually spend time with her during the summer vacation. Especially since she already had plans to spend her month-long grace period with the Patils and Goldsteins.

Luckily, her parents had been planning to unwind on the French Riviera anyway. They agreed to a three-week family vacation right after her finals in mid-July. In mid-August, Hermione would rendezvous with Padma and the Goldsteins in Cannes while her parents returned home. She would stay with them for a week and half before returning to England to get ready for the new school year.

* * *

Two weeks into her grace period, she had an interesting discussion with their potions tutor, Horace Slughorn –

_She, Padma and Anthony were packing their things at the end of the lesson when Mr. Slughorn asked them to stay behind. He pointed to the mirror in her messenger bag._

"_Oh. That's a bespelled communication mirror."_

_Mr. Slughorn looked at her, willing her to continue explaining. _

"_We have a study group during the school year that's really effective. We'd wanted to continue it through the summer, but had difficulty doing so through owl. So we created a long-distance, instantaneous communication device. This mirror lets you 'call' anyone with a mirror virtually anywhere in the world, and allows for three-way calls."_

"_That is quite impressive. Who designed it?"_

"_We all did. We all researched the history of such communication devices and came up with the idea of using mirrors based on the rumored use of speaking mirrors in Avalon. Anthony got the mirrors and modified them to handle face to face communication. I modified the spell to work over long-distances. Padma worked out a method of allowing for multiple, simultaneous calls."_

"_Outstanding work, all of you. You should think seriously about patenting and selling these."_

_The three friends looked at each other before exclaiming, all together, "That'd be brilliant!"_

_Padma and Anthony rushed off to tell their parents. Hermione moved to leave, but Slughorn stopped her._

"_Miss Granger," stated Mr. Slughorn, "You have an astounding intellect."_

"_Thank you, Mr. Slughorn. But we all worked on the mirrors."_

"_Oh, I'm not just talking about the mirrors. Although I'd be very interested in seeing your distance modification – truly impressive. No, I'm talking about your performance in my class."_

_Hermione could not take praise from authority well, although she positively reveled in it. She looked down at her feet, murmuring, "I just work hard, that's all. Especially in Potions, I have to...I don't have a natural talent for it like Padma..."_

_Slughorn interrupted her, declaring,"Nonsense. As Edison, a squib inventor, once said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." You could be a wonderful Potions Mistress, but your considerable talents might be served just as well elsewhere – Transfiguration or – Charms! Flitwick raves about you."_

_Hermione reddened. "In fact, you remind me of one of my all-time favorite students, Lily Evans. She was exceedingly bright...and, like you, Muggle-born. She was Head Girl her final year at Hogwarts...a Gryffindor, the first not from Ravenclaw in decades."_

"_I'm honored by that comparison, Mr. Slughorn. I myself hope to be Head Girl one day."_

"_Oho, I'm sure you will be, Miss Granger."_

"_What does Lily Evans do now, Mr. Slughorn? Perhaps I could write her to ask her for advice."_

_Mr. Slughorn's jolly face immediately closed up. "She, uhm,was killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, along with her husband, James Potter. She died so very young, it was a great pity..."_

_Hermione sputtered inside. Lily Evans was Lily Potter? But books that referred to the Boy-Who-Lived never mentioned his mother's maiden name or the fact that she was muggleborn. [1]_

_Slughorn was still talking while Hermione continued railing against the terrible biases of magical history books. He suddenly cleared his throat and made her an interesting offer – _

"_Tell you what. Lily was helping me with some groundbreaking research on improving the Wolfsbane potion during her sixth and seventh years, and I'm afraid I haven't made much progress on it since. Help me with this research. I'll give you credit if it ever gets published, and I know I have Lily's notes laying around somewhere. Its really cutting-edge stuff, I think you'll like it. Think of it as a long-term project. We'll do it over owl and meet every few months or so. Just do what you can, I know you're juggling school and friends as well..."_

"_That would be fantastic! Thank you, thank you for this opportunity. I'll work so hard on this; you won't regret asking me!"_

_He smiled kindly at her, but his eyes looked like they were seeing into the past. _

* * *

She'd worried that Padma and Anthony might be jealous. So she was relieved to learn that their DADA tutor had made a similar offer to Anthony days before, on researching the best defensive techniques for several, obscure Dark spells used by Voldemort in WWIX. (She had to quell some stirrings of indignation that he had not shared Mr. Meade's offer with Padma and herself, but was too happy to care.) Padma, on the other hand, was depressed until she was asked by Slughorn, a day later, to assist in modifying a potion to more effectively heal damage from the Cruciatus. [2]

This sort of research assistance could eventually lead to apprenticeships, and Masteries, for all of them!

Mr. Slughorn did indeed find and lend Hermione Lily Potter's (née Evans) notes on the modified Wolfsbane. Seven, bound notebooks full of them, actually.

A couple days into reading them, she noticed a peculiar shimmer on some pages. Hermione ran some diagnostic spells and discovered some secrecy and invisibility charms. Once removed, they revealed some intensely personal ramblings.

She wasn't sure why Slughorn had these notebooks, but some entries were downright diary-like, even detailing the budding relationship between Lily Evans and James Potter.

She felt like a guilty voyeur reading these entries, but knew someone who would appreciate them. She checked with Professor Slughorn, who looked inordinately pleased at the idea. He helped her replicate the notebooks so she could keep the copies.

* * *

_Hermione,_

_Thank you __so much__ for owling me my mother's notebooks. It's the best birthday present ever. It's the first thing of my mother's I've ever held or read. I can't be any more grateful for this chance to get to know her, and my father. She was... so smart, so kind and so full of life..._

(Here Hermione saw some traces of teardrops and immediately felt a deep sadness for Harry, who had not only been denied his parents for twelve years but knowledge of them as well. She was almost certain that she was the first person to see this side of Harry and felt immensely privileged.)

_I'm happy that you're continuing her work with Mr. Slughorn. I'm thrilled for you, really._

_Thank you so so much. I can only hope I'll one day be worthy of their sacrifice._

_My eternal gratitude,_

_Harry_

* * *

Hermione managed to fully catch up on all her work, but still only made it to number two on The List. Unfortunately, she displaced Anthony, who was bumped down to third.

She was determined to be number one next year, no matter what it took.

It was absolutely unacceptable that she had been distracted by rumors about Harry Potter. Hermione was sure that if she hadn't meddled (like Tony had advised), she probably wouldn't have been petrified. And she would've been fully focused on her work, not distracted by research on Slytherin's monster.

As top of The List this past year, Padma was now an even more serious competitor for Head Girl.

She didn't blame Padma. Padma had won, fair and square. Padma had not been distracted by the Potter rumors. Padma had not pushed research of Slytherin's monster. She hadn't run off on her own, been caught off guard and petrified. She hadn't let her commitment to academic excellence falter.

No, Hermione blamed herself. And, she promised herself that she would not let it happen again.

As such, she wrote to Professor Flitwick and told him she was determined to do her best this year, and wanted to take as many classes as possible. After many owls and promises were exchanged, Professor Flitwick got approval from the Department of Mysteries to let Hermione borrow a Time Turner so she could literally take all possible classes this next year. [3]

* * *

France was fantastic. The Granger family explored the cultural landscape of Nice and Monaco. They ate at charming family bistros and stunning waterfront restaurants along the Port de Fontvieille, walked around the Promenade des Anglais and Monaco-Ville, explored the cities' ancient Gaul, Greek, Roman and Genoan ruins, art museums, cathedrals, botanical gardens and palaces.

Then they headed off to the superb beaches around St. Tropez and Antibes to swim, sun-bathe, and sip rosé. They always ended their days lounging on the beach, chatting and people-watching while devouring salade niçoise or seafood and drinking crisp, dry Provençal rosés or full, herbal Cassis Sauvignon blancs. [4]

Reading ahead in a textbook and sunbathing on a beach in the French Riviera, the events of last year seemed so far away she could hardly believe that it had happened to her and that she had survived. She was able to tell her parents the story from a fresh, objective perspective and was startled at some of the insights she reaped.

She explained about the basilisk, Harry Potter and Voldemort. As expected, they were extremely apprehensive about her returning to what seemed to be a highly insecure location. Even with Dumbledore as Headmaster, Hogwarts had been infiltrated by Voldemort twice now: once through Quirrell and once through his diary. While it was unclear whether Harry Potter was the target of either attack, it was clear that becoming closer to him would only bring trouble.

To allay her parents' fears, Hermione agreed to stop by Beauxbatons with the Goldsteins and inquire discreetly about the possibility of transferring. Her parents didn't mind living in France, and were more than willing to move to preserve their only daughter's well being.

Hermione had no intention of leaving Hogwarts and the best friends she'd ever known. While the Goldsteins had agreed to visit Beauxbatons, she knew that they only did so to humor her parents. If Anthony left Hogwarts, she was sure they'd hire private tutors for him in England. She wasn't sure about Padma, but the Patils didn't have a house in France and private tutoring for both Padma and Parvarti was bound to be expensive. Hermione knew her parents couldn't afford five years of it. [5]

But Hermione was glad for the opportunity to check out Beauxbatons' DADA curriculum, and knew her friends would be too.

* * *

One day, while sunbathing on the Cap d'Antibes, her mother asked her why she'd been so interested in discrediting the rumors about Harry Potter.

"Because they weren't true!" she insisted strongly.

Sipping her wine, her mother smiled indulgently at her. "Are you sure that was it, dear?"

Hermione glared at Helen Granger before burying her face in her towel. "Fine. I was pleased with the idea that he needed my help. Not many people need or want my help, and if they do it's just to copy my homework. It never felt like he wanted to use me; he never asked me for help and never wanted my help with homework. He needed my research skills because he couldn't figure it out himself. Although I was annoyed that he gave up so easily. But maybe Padma and I were the only ones who could've figured it out... I felt special. It was nice to be needed and appreciated for being me, and not just as a homework machine. And he is a bit of a celebrity, even though he's not that great of a student..." [6]

Helen stopped Hermione's rant with a smile, and sat up to pour herself another glass. "Just remember that celebrity is a double-edged sword. Maybe you can do great good for the world by helping him – like this time, with the basilisk. And perhaps people will respect you more when they learn what you can do. But you could just as easily get sucked up into the mythology of the Harry Potter, and lose yourself in the process."

Hermione didn't want to be a 'friend of the Boy-Who-Lived' or the 'Brains of the Golden Trio.' She wanted to be named and known for who she was, _regardless_ (not because) of who her friends might be.

She wanted to be "Hermione Granger, The Smartest Witch of Her Age."

Her mother's words gave her a lot to think about.

* * *

Hermione had a fantastic time at the Goldsteins' villa in Cannes. Anthony's father was the British representative to the International Confederation of Wizards and his mother a famous French robe designer. [7] They were very well off and their villa was expansive and luxurious. On Hermione's first day in Cannes, they went for a cruise on the Goldsteins' yacht and ate at the two Michelin starred restaurant, La Palme d'Or.

The three friends were ecstatic to see each other. They checked over each others' homework, discussed what they'd read in the schoolbooks for the coming year and told each other about their holidays and individual research so far.

Hermione also told Padma and Anthony about the diaries and her correspondence with Harry Potter over the summer. Surprisingly, both – even Anthony – were ambivalent about the idea of her becoming friends with him. Anthony only repeated his warning from last year about being distracted and falling behind in her studies. She assured him that she had no intention of repeating her mistakes of the previous year.

But Jeanette, Anthony's French cousin, was determined to make them have some fun. She thought they were all just so cute and precious, studying all the time. Jeanette was a seventh year at Beauxbatons. She was tall, blonde and glamorous and spoke, moved and walked incredibly fast.

She and her friends summered every year in Cannes and were determined to show Hermione, Padma and Tony how the French vacationed. They walked around the old town, climbed the castle ruins, visited Notre-Dame d'Esperance and bought trinkets from souvenir shops. They ate at bistrots on rue Meynardiers and always finished off a day with chocolates from the stores on Rue d'Antibes.

To Anthony's dismay, one day Jeanette and her friends dragged them to shopping on La Croisette and at Molinard. Jeanette's enthusiasm was infectious and she eventually helped Hermione and Padma pick out sun dresses at a cheaper boutique.

Anthony was resigned to the role of portable bag holder for the day.

At Molinard, they learned about the art of perfume making and they each had a scent custom-made. Even Anthony got a spiced, sandalwood cologne. Then the girls insisted they dress up to go to a fancy restaurant at night and forced Anthony into a suit. He was positively disgruntled at the girls' treatment of him, and annoyed that Padma and Hermione didn't stand up more for him. But no one could stop the _tour-de-force_ that was Jeanette.

They also visited Les Îles de Lérins, two islands in the bay. They visited the monastery and ruined castle on Ste Honorat. Jeanette bought some wine from the monastery and they all shared a bottle while sitting on the beach and listening to the Beauxbatons' girls lurid stories about boys.

On Ste Marguerite, they went snorkeling in a small cove and ate a family-run bar where the French girls ended up loudly and drunkenly singing bar songs with the locals.

When Jeanette and her friends left halfway through the week, they were all a bit relieved. Padma, Hermione and Anthony spent the rest of the week lazing around in the villa, working on their independent research projects and sunbathing on the family yacht or swimming in a small, secluded cove they discovered on Ste Marguerite.

For a couple of days, the three friends forgot about The List and simply enjoyed life.

* * *

The distance back to England was too far to cover in one Portkey, so they took three different ones. The first stopped at Beauxbatons, in Lyon.

Jeanette had refused to talk about school during vacation, so it was their first opportunity to learn about the French school's DADA curriculum.

Though most students appeared as relaxed and flippant about their marks as Jeanette, even Beauxbatons' DADA curriculum was more comprehensive than Hogwarts'. France had borne the brunt of Grindelwald's wrath in WWVIII. In the immediate post-war period, many French Aurors and curse-breakers developed elaborate defenses against the heinous Dark curses used by Grindelwald's army. Many of these defenses had been incorporated into the upper level Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum at Beauxbatons. [8]

This discovery sincerely shocked the three friends. Durmstrang's extensive Dark Arts curriculum was easily explained by the school's reputation. But Beauxbatons was often regarded among magical educators as specializing in Charms and Astronomy, because the great majority of its students were female.

But Hogwarts was a greater target for You-Know-Who than any of the other schools. That actually seemed to be the only difference – if anything, Hogwarts had more comprehensive magical and physical defenses than Beauxbatons. But Beauxbatons had never been attacked by Voldemort, possibly because Harry Potter did not attend school there.

Transferring was a simple process, but Hermione was not enthusiastic about the possibility. Especially as the classes were given in French and there were so many differences in the curriculum. As such, she might be forced to play catch up again.

In the end, they thanked Headmistress Maxime for her help and resolved to write a letter of complaint to the Hogwarts' Governors. They then Portkeyed to Calais and had lunch at Jeanette's family manor. The three friends also persuaded Jeanette to loan them some of her old DADA textbooks. They planned to study them in their DADA study group.

* * *

After returning to England, the three friends still had a week left before school started. They spent this time reading even further ahead, although they had already read over half of the material for the new school year during the first month of summer. The day before school started, they headed to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies. (They had already bought all their schoolbooks in July.)

They ran into Harry, Weasley and Neville at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry waved shyly at the Ravenclaws, gesturing for them to sit together. After some small talk about the summer and a Butterbeer, he suggested that they all go shopping for supplies together. She could tell Harry wanted them all to be friendly. Honestly, she was happy to see Harry but really did not savor the prospect of spending more time with Weasley.

Nevertheless, the six of them decided to head first to buy potions ingredients at the Apothecary. While in the store, Harry took her to the side and thanked her again for the notebooks. Hermione told him that she'd also been reading the notebooks over the summer and that she really admired his mother. Harry told her that he'd thought about it a lot over the summer, and was resolved to study much harder this year. He wanted to become worthy of his mother's sacrifice and had realized that he couldn't defend himself from Voldemort by playing Quidditch or chess.

She agreed wholeheartedly with Harry and told him that his mother would be proud of him for making a commitment to his education. [9] Hermione also offered to help him if he needed it, for which he thanked her.

The moment was ruined when they heard Weasley in a different aisle talking excitedly about how he needed to go to Ollivander's to get his new wand. Afterwards, they went to Flourish & Blotts, and Weasley started whinging after five minutes because he was bored and wanted to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies.

They eventually decided to split up – as none of her friends played Quidditch – and planned to meet up in an hour at the Magical Menagerie. She, Padma and Anthony were relieved once Weasley left, as they could now take their time looking at other books they could use in their study group. They also stopped by Obscurus Books, where they bought some very old looking books on Grindelwald, Dark curses, and blood rituals and the stationery store, where they picked up some Everlasting Ink Wells and Spell-Checking Quills.

They met up after an hour at the Magical Menagerie. Harry, Neville and Weasley were nowhere to be found so Hermione began looking around. She spotted a large ginger cat that seemed awfully gloomy, and fell in love right away with the creature.

"He's a right finicky one, he is," said the wizened old store owner. "Hisses at anyone who comes near him. Think it's the half Kneazle in him." He smiled at Hermione, revealing half a row of crooked yellow teeth. "Seems to like you though."

She playfully extended a hand out toward the cat, who began mewling softly at her. "It's because I know what it feels like to be misunderstood."

Padma joined her in front of the cat's cage and meowed at it. Anthony stepped up behind her, remarking,"Its awfully ugly" - the cat began hissing at him and they all laughed - "but smart, I guess."

"You're a smart boy, aren't you," Hermione asked the cat before rubbing him behind the years. "I'll take good care of you, I promise!" She turned toward the owner and asked, "How much?"

"Well, he's not likely to go to someone else so I'll sell him to you real cheap. Two galleons, maybe."

Hermione turned to Anthony, who was very money-savvy and always knew what things were worth. He shrugged in approval and Hermione handed over the money from her bag. The owner opened the cage and she picked the cat up, cooing to him, "I think I'll call you Crookshanks."

Hermione was cradling him in her arms when the 'Golden Trio' entered the shop.

Weasley stopped right in front of her and demanded, "What is that ugly thing?"

Hermione scowled at him, fed up with his rudeness. She tucked Crookshanks protectively under her chin and responded, "He is my cat. Actually, he's half-Kneazle."

"You actually bought that monster?" he asked.

"_He_ is not an ugly thing or a monster," she said pointedly. "_His_ name is Crookshanks."

At this point, Crookshanks decided that he did not like Weasley's rat and jumped out of her arms after it. Weasley let out a high-pitched scream that startled many of the animals in the store. Even worse, he started running after her cat, toppling over a number of cages and displays.

The owner became distraught, yelling at him to stop. Hermione stood frozen on the stop, unable to move – partly because of the peals of laughter escaping her mouth. Finally, Anthony successfully scooped up her cat while Harry picked up the sickly-looking rat by the tail.

Ears red from embarrassment and exhaustion, Weasley turned around to look at her accusingly. "You keep your bloody monster away from Scabbers, you hear?"

Anthony, still holding Crookshanks (who had now started purring), moved closer to Weasley and narrowed his eyes at him."You're pathetic, whinging all day and then blaming everything on a cat. You were the one insulting him. You were the one who screamed like a girl and started running around like a chicken with its head cut off when Crookshanks only followed a natural impulse to chase a rat."

Weasley turned bright red in anger and moved to open his mouth but was stopped by the indignant store owner. "Out, out! Or I'll make you pay for all this damage! I never want to see you again, you red-haired miscreant! You obviously don't know a thing about taking care of animals, from the looks of your rat! I feel sorry for your rat for having an owner like you!"

They all grudgingly left the store, but not before Padma, Hermione and Anthony snickered to themselves about Weasley's dressing down. Once they were all out, Weasley turned to Hermione angrily but was stopped once again by Anthony. Harry and Neville looked on worriedly from the side.

"Stop it Weasley, don't embarrass yourself further. We're leaving," Anthony turned to the other two Gryffindors, "Thanks, Potter and Longbottom. We'll see you two at school."

The three Claws then turned to go off to Florean Fortescue's for a much-needed scoop of ice cream. As they left, they heard Weasley sputtering and ranting, "Who the hell does he think he is, that great bloody prat, just because his dad's the ICW rep..."

Hermione decided that no matter how much she might like Harry and Neville, she would never be able to stand Weasley.

* * *

The next day on the train to Hogwarts, Hermione had a frustrating run-in with another Weasley. She was surprised when little Ginny Weasley entered their compartment and demanded to speak to her alone. Padma and Anthony lifted bewildered eyebrows in her direction before heading off to buy some snacks from the trolley lady.

The red-haired girl started right away, demanding, "What's your relationship to Harry?"

Confused, Hermione repeated, "Harry...?"

Weasley continued her interrogation unabated. "I know you've been writing him all summer so I want to know, what's your relationship to Harry?"

Annoyed at her abruptness, Hermione said, "I don't know..."

"What do you mean you don't know? Of course you know, don't lie to me!"

Stunned at the girl's hostility – Hermione had never even met her before – she asked suspiciously, "Why are you asking me? Why don't you ask Harry?"

The girl reddened considerably. "I have asked Harry. I just want to know what you think."

Hermione thought she might be fibbing, because as far as she knew Ginny followed him around but had never had the courage to really talk with him. She decided to be deliberately obtuse.

Also, she didn't actually know what her relationship with Harry was, so she had no idea what to tell the girl. And if Harry had told Ginny something, Hermione certainly didn't want to say anything different. She settled for, "Then I think what Harry thinks."

"You don't know what he thinks!"

"How do you know I don't?" She challenged.

Ginny threw up her hands in frustration. "Just tell me what your relationship with Harry is!"

"I already did." She was beginning to get some sort of enjoyment out of toying with this girl who evidently thought that Hermione was a threat to her imaginary relationship with Harry Potter and had decided to hostilely confront her.

"No you didn't! You purposely evaded my question!"

Apparently there was more to Ginny Weasley than she had thought. Perhaps she'd learned something from growing up in a household full of brothers.

"Ok, I did. But that doesn't change the fact that my relationship with Harry – whatever it may be – is none of your business."

"How is it none of my business? Harry's my friend!"

Hermione held back a snort of disbelief. "So this goes back to my original question – why don't you ask him? Do you not trust him to make his own friends?"

Weasley's face was bright red from anger, like the color of a ripe tomato. "No! Bloody hell, why can't you just tell me? Do you have something to hide?"

"Do you have something you're looking for?"

"Stop answering my questions with questions!"

"Stop asking ridiculous questions you have no right to be asking." Hermione was getting extremely annoyed by the second year's impertinence. And the interrogation about her relationship to a boy that she was barely friends with.

"I have every right to make sure Harry's not becoming friends with the wrong sort! He's my friend, and I'm looking out for him!"

"So you think you know better than Harry what kind of friend he needs?"

Weasley stood up angrily and began to move closer to her. Hermione began visibly fingering her wand. She then stuck out her hand, gesturing for Weasley to stop where she was.

"Whatever. What I've been trying to hint at is that you and I are not friends and I have no reason to give into your very rude demands that I answer your question. And that any relationship I have with Harry is none of your business, even if you are friends with Harry. He is his own person and perfectly capable of making his own decisions. Which you should know and accept, if you are really his friend."

"Don't tell me that I'm not really his friend!"

Hermione wasn't sure how much more straightforward she could be or how much longer she could tolerate the spoiled girl's rude behavior. She decided that it might be best if she ignored Weasley until her friends came back or the girl left, because it appeared that nothing Hermione could say would get through to her.

A few moments passed in which Weasley looked at her speculatively, as if expecting an answer. Hermione turned her head away to look out the window, before finally saying, "Look, I don't have anything more to say. I don't know what you hoped to accomplish here, but I'm not scared of you and I could care less what you think of me so I think you should just leave."

She didn't turn to look at Weasley but guessed that she was turning even redder. She held her wand firmly in her hand, ready to react if Weasley attempted a spell. But she was surprised when Weasley asked, quietly and almost shyly, "Do you like him?"

"Again, none of your business."

She continued in such an earnest tone that Hermione couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. "If you don't like him," she paused, giving the appearance of a sweet, earnest schoolgirl. "Can you help me get him?"

Utterly dumbfounded, Hermione turned back to look at Weasley – face rouge with an embarrassed blush or indignant anger, she wasn't entirely sure – and asked, "Why would I do that?"

She whispered, _sotto voce_, "I love him." [9.5]

Hermione still wasn't sure whether or not to trust the innocent act, which was frankly more disturbing than Weasley's hilariously blatant indignation. She neutrally stated, "Lots of girls like Harry Potter."

True to form, Mount Weasley exploded in fury.

"But I'm Ron's sister! A Weasley! And he saved me!"

Relieved to have been right, Hermione laughed.

Evidently, Harry hadn't told her anything.

"So?"

"But I love him so much!" declared Ginny, passionately. "I've loved him since I was five and my mother read me the _Tales of the Boy-Who-Lived_!"

"So you don't like Harry the person, you like the myth of Harry, the 'Boy-Who-Lived.'" For the last part, Hermione used her fingers to make quotation marks in the air. "You didn't meet Harry the person until last year; how could you have liked him when you were five? You fell in love with some fairy tales and have now deluded yourself into thinking that you can make those fairy tales come true."

"You just wouldn't understand," Weasley said, sadly shaking her head. Falling back into her _faux_ earnest tone, she whispered, "We're destined." A pause for dramatic effect. "Meant to be."

Hermione didn't know how to respond to Weasley's assertions of romantic granduer. "So if I don't understand, why are you asking me for help?"

"Why don't you help me?" she answered, suddenly smirking at having turned Hermione's tactic against her. "Are you scared he might actually like me?"

Hermione sighed. "Look, whatever the merits of your love, it doesn't change the fact that I have no reason to help you. I never do anything without a reason. You're not my friend and you haven't been all that nice to me. Even if we were friends, I wouldn't help you conspire against Harry to help you 'get him.' He's not a trophy to be won; he's a person. I'm not going to interfere with his love life, just like I wouldn't want him to interfere with mine. If Harry likes someone and asks for my help, I'll probably help him. But I'm not going to help any girls try to 'get' him – especially not someone who just rudely demands it like you."

"But Harry likes me!"

This conversation had passed ridiculous five minutes ago. "So then why do you need my help?" she asked, tiredly.

"Because he hasn't realized it yet! He just needs help realizing it." [10]

Hermione looked at Ginny Weasley, really looked at her. Her face was red, blotchy and scrunched up in frustration. She looked like a desperate, delusional little girl madly in love with her fantasy.

For the first time, Hermione felt pity for her. She so badly wanted her dreams to come true, she was resorting to delusions and lying to make it happen. Obviously, Harry had expressed no real interest in her, which was why she was threatened by a couple of letters she and Harry had exchanged over the summer.

But any pity she felt for the clearly delusional girl was quickly eclipsed by sympathy for Harry. Unfortunately, he got to be the living, breathing Prince Charming of Weasley's fairy tale.

For the second time that summer, she began to truly understand what it meant to be Harry Potter. He'd not only lost his family but most people he knew never really _saw_ him. All they saw is what they wanted to see; a hero, a prince charming, a savior. But he wasn't any of that –

He was just a scared, sad boy who missed his parents and wanted to become better academically.

He was just like her, before she'd met Padma and Anthony.

But everyone else could never accept the real Harry. They would always expect, demand things of him that he might not be able to give. And when they were disappointed – and they inevitably would be, because Harry was human – they would vilify him and blame everything on his failure. Just like with the Heir of Slytherin fiasco.

It was as if everyone in Magical Britain gave up on saving themselves and decided one day that Harry Potter would be the one who would save them. All because he inexplicably survived the killing curse at the age of one. Hermione didn't know how she could stand to live under those circumstances – the weight of all those expectations might crush her.

And other people – like her – who might see him as just Harry would just as likely be scared of him and the danger any friendship would bring.

How did he live like that? How many real friends did he have? Did _she_ even want to be his friend? Especially as it might get in the way of her own hopes and dreams?

Her reverie was interrupted by Ginny Weasley sticking her hand into Hermione's face and waving it around, as if to wake her from a faint.

"Granger? Are you going to help me or not?"

"No," she said, uncomfortable at the invasion of her personal space. "The only thing I'll say is that he will never like you if you continue to act like this. It is extremely unattractive."

She gestured for Weasley to leave and when she didn't get the hint, Hermione straightforwardly told her, " Please leave. I won't change my mind." She paused but couldn't help herself – "Except to say that you should seriously consider counseling." [11]

The sounds of Weasley's indignant sputtering were drowned out by Anthony and Padma's re-entry into the cabin.

* * *

**NOTES:**

[1] I am probably taking major liberties with canon here, but it is not entirely unbelievable that the books would leave out Lily Potter's maiden name and the fact that she was muggleborn. I'm not sure about the specifics, but I think that Harry only found out about his muggleborn mother from his teachers at Hogwarts, not from the books about him and his parents. Plus, we already know this world is very biased against muggleborns.

[2] This might be unbelievable to some, but if we persist in the idea that Hermione is the brightest witch of her age, then surely she must be capable of research at an early age? Several of my classmates in university had started legitimate scientific research in high school, some even in middle school. This is especially true if people are calling her the Smartest Witch of Her Age at the age of 15 or 16 or whatever it was in the books. Obviously, she had to have done something to deserve that title.

Lots of people have reviewed about Hermione's type of intelligence. In my story, she's not a super-unbelievable-amazing genius but she has innate skill at magic and is very keen on studying. She's smart, and even Edison said that - as Slughorn says in this chapter - genius is 99% perspiration. Really, I think there are two types of genius: 1) people who are smart, work hard and push themselves - they make up maybe 50% of the true geniuses in the world. They're not super smart, they were there at the right time or worked hard and long enough to discover something truly amazing. 2) people who are incredibly intelligent, off the wall IQs. But they do not always work hard and push themselves, and often fall to their own superior intellect and are unable to socialize and thus accomplish anything. Lots of kids who graduate from college at 16 or this one girl at my uni with an IQ of 200 but had a mental illness, became paranoid, homeless, eventually stopped eating and walked herself to death. My Hermione falls in the former category.

I buy into the "smartest witch of her age" moniker, for the purposes of this story, rather than Rowling's somewhat contradictory (which some people have pointed out) characterization of Hermione as just studying all the time and therefore, not that smart because she obviously has to put in a lot of effort to learn it all. In my defense and to clarify my characterization of Hermione:

1) She's the smartest witch of her age at the age of 15 or 16. I take this to mean that she's the smartest witch of her age group in all of England and therefore, all of Hogwarts. If that meant she was only the smartest girl in her class, then that's what they would say. She's the smartest girl in her year/class. So I think it's not just all the other 13/14 year old girls in her class (she's a 3rd year now). To me, this moniker encompasses all of England and quite possibly all of the world. But the latter is a) difficult to measure and b) difficult for people who are calling her this to reference. The only thing that may offset these two is that we know Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards in the world and he acknowledges her intelligence. So maybe she's smarter than a lot of girls in her age group beyond Britain too. But she works hard for it. Maybe there isn't a type 2 genius in her year? Or maybe we don't know about her?

2) Hermione has to do something in the intervening time to make people believe that she's the smartest witch of her age. So between 14 (as a 3rd year) and 15/16, she does something AMAZING. To earn this moniker. Is this too early? Is this research too much of an accomplishment? No. A) This research hasn't gone anywhere yet (even under Lily!) and isn't guaranteed to go anywhere impressive. B) Sixteen year olds in the US are graduating from college, playing at Carnegie Hall, producing master paintings and poems. Nineteen year olds are graduating from Harvard Law. If we assume that the people in Britain aren't dumber than in the US, and even accounting for the fact that Britain has fewer people than the US (and thus, possibly fewer high-achievers by the law of probability if we assume that maybe .001% of children are such prodigies) than we can expect similar achievements out of Hermione. This holds true even though the Wizarding population may be smaller.

[Skeptical of this type of reasoning? I can refer you to a prof who theorized that China was such a great world power pre-Industrialization (so in the Ming period) because it had such a high population and so successfully invented paper, fireworks, etc. due to the fact that its very large population gave it a larger portion of geniuses. But China lost this world power status to the Europeans because geniuses are not good administrators but are somewhat reclusive and technology destroyed its comparative intelligence advantage. Arguably now that China has industrialized in the post-Mao period, it's superior intelligence quotient is coming into play...see the many news articles about how much better Chinese are at math and sciences and how they will overtake the US (not to mention Europe) technologically in the future. The US's greatest fear.]

3) She studies a lot. She likes studying. In my story, this does not make her less of a genius. True, some true geniuses become bored very quickly with the easy material offered in their grade and slack off and never have to work hard. By this definition though, we'd think Ron was a genius. I highly doubt that. Just because she likes studying does not mean she is not a genius or smart. There's no causal relationship or certain link there. Not studying = cliche characteristic of a type 2 genius.

4) Keep in mind A) we see a caricature of her studying, a mocking of it really in canon by Rowling as well as Harry/Ron because no one else understands her love of knowledge and B) she has to study. She didn't know about magic until she was 11 and is years behind the pureblood and halfblood students. She has to catch up on all of the background and societal knowledge that the teachers *assume* one would know. Why is there no manual for muggleborns? Why is there "Muggle Studies" but no "Introduction to Wizarding Culture" offered?

5) Yes, there are differences between canon and my story. In my story, she thrives on her intelligence and finds emotional and intellectual support in her friends, who at the same time push her to be better and help her gain this type of background knowledge she needs to survive and thrive in this new world. So she innovates new spells, which I don't think is unrealistic because in my story, she is a genius. This is an AU. Regardless of whether or not she is a genius or overrated in canon, I choose to portray her as such and I don't think its unrealistic, like I argued before. She's certainly flawed - at potions, to an extent, at flying certainly and not as good as Anthony at DADA. But she is remarkable in her retention of knowledge and ability to analyze it and even more - she pushes herself. Hard. To accomplish. Some geniuses push themselves really hard to do well. They might study a lot not because they're not smart but because they're not confident, despite their smart. Some of them don't get overconfident, overinflated egos because they are ridiculed for their genius. Rather than rejecting society and educational institutions as social conventions, some of them still attempt to fit in.

So my Hermione is very smart, the smartest witch of her age - arguably, but still insecure, socially not that skilled, and certainly flawed in her abilities and knowledge. But I don't think she's all-powerful or all-knowing at all...She will overreach - with potions and in the next chapter, with the Patronus. This story will explore how she earned that moniker and became the Smartest Witch of Her Age, which we will see was quite a struggle.

Ok, I grant that thirteen may be a bit of a stretch – even for a prodigy – but think of Slughorn's offer as an investment. She's obviously very bright – he can tell – and will go on to do great things one day. He isn't expecting her to make significant advances in high-level potions now, he wants her commitment to helping with it over the future. Right now, she probably is focusing on reading up on the Wolfsbane potion, and looking through Lily's notes. Next, she'll move onto reading past modifications of it and thinking seriously about the potions theory and what new modifications can be made. Then she'd do experiments. It's a long long project – which Slughorn knows – and they probably won't make any discovery until much later on (her sixth/seventh year at least), if they make any at all. Slughorn is establishing an early relationship with someone who thinks will be very important in the future.

I always thought it was weird that Slughorn was not more interested in Hermione in canon, given that we are supposed to believe she's the smartest witch of her age.

Similar offers are made to the others because they are all exceptionally bright. Anthony's work builds on his DADA knowledge and interest. Padma's offer is only delayed by convenience; Slughorn manages to get some time alone with her the next day and make his offer.

[3] There was never really a satisfactory explanation in canon for why Hermione used the Time Turner 3rd year. What was so exceptional about 3rd year? How did she convince McGonagall she needed it? I provide an explanation here, that she is distraught at falling behind last year and is determined to exceed all of her peers this year. She nags Flitwick into submission, perhaps. Or, more likely, she is his favorite student and he sympathizes with her disappointment over being petrified, falling behind, and only making 2nd on The List.

[4] Hermione's parents are dentists. I think of dentists as middle class, possibly upper middle class depending on their clientele. The French Riviera is an extremely popular vacation destination for the British upper middle class. Think of the Grangers as being fashionable British for whom this is their primary vacation that year (they might get together with family at Christmas, but they won't go abroad) and who had saved up a lot of money to splurge at this time. Three weeks is not long for an European vacation. Europeans are not strict about serving wine, even to minors. Wine is an integral part of dining and cuisine in Europe, and even young children are served it by their parents – which makes them less likely to binge drink in college. For this section, I got to make fun use of the Wikitravel articles on Cannes, Nice and Monaco.

[5] Again, the Grangers are well-off but not rich like the Goldsteins. I think of the Goldsteins as a wealthy, Jewish family. (I think Goldstein might be a German-Jewish name.) So they have family in Germany and Tony's mother is from France.

[6] I always thought that part of the reason Hermione hung out with Harry and Ron was because they needed her, and she likes feeling needed. Especially on cool, history-changing adventures that Harry would often get into. This is not Hermione being obsessed with Harry's celebrity; we get a contrast with Ginny later on where we see what a true fan-girl looks like.

[7] I think of a representative to the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW) as like being a representative to the UN. A powerful position, which he earned by being a skilled diplomat and possibly by being fairly rich.

[8] Going off the idea that Germany took over France in WWII so Magical Germany under Grindelwald takes over Magical France. Hitler did terrible things; so did Grindelwald.

[9] Harry is used to underachieving because of the Dursleys. I believe he needed some sort of external motivation to cause him to concentrate on his academics. Proof of his mother's commitment to her studies and knowledge of her sacrifice for him would be more than sufficient, I think.

[9.5] Italian for "under voice," implying 'in soft tones.' From Wikipedia: "means intentionally lowering one's voice for emphasis. The speaker gives the impression of uttering involuntarily a truth which may surprise, shock, or offend."

[10] Is Ginny OCC? Well, Ginny in canon is not all that well-developed so its hard to say what's out of character when we don't even know what canon Ginny is really like.

But I think not. I think in the books Ginny asks Hermione if she likes Harry (right?). I know for sure that she asks for Hermione's help in getting Harry, and she tells Ginny to stop being all fan-girlish and just be herself, give up her crush. Without Hermione to advise her, Ginny may just get worse and worse. I really think that Ginny spends much of her young life thinking that she and Harry are somehow destined to be, he just doesn't realize it yet. She also obviously feels real emotion (its not all faked!), but it's pretty misdirected (as Hermione points out).

My Harry spends part of his summer at the Burrow, like in canon. He might talk a bit about Hermione and how he's been writing to her. As far as Ginny knows – and we know – Hermione is the only girl he has really extended contact with (he visited her in the Hospital Wing last year!) and certainly the only one with whom he corresponds.

Ginny views that as a real threat. At the same time, she wants to know what Hermione's secret is and wants her help, if possible. She's a Weasley; loud, brash and rude. She's the only girl in a family of six older brothers; she's spoiled and used to getting her way when she demands it. She's not used to tact or discretion, and has no idea how to react when Hermione refuses to give in – other than her childish attempt at manipulation (which sadly, probably works with her family). She doesn't realize that people don't have the obligation to help her and usually only act with some sort of motivation. Being possessed 1st year probably didn't help her emotional progression all that much.

Ginny's lack of tact really rubs Hermione the wrong way. I don't think Ginny is OCC with the character I established previously, a delusional little girl who follows Harry around, obsessed with fulfilling her fantasies. Hermione thinks its cute, but sad last year. Now that its translated to unfounded hostility against her, she's just pissed off.

[11] Some people might say Hermione here is being OCC because she's so harsh. My Hermione is a rational creature. She is not the super nice super self-sacrificing creature that some fanfic authors make her out to be.

She is determined and ambitious and cares about her desires more than Harry's, because she's more independent in this story. Padma and Anthony and Hermione support each other in their academic endeavors, rather than all supporting one character (Harry) in his adventures. That's why she's still debating what her relationship with Harry will really be, and if she really does want to be friends with him and what that means.

Hermione is consistently willing to do whatever necessary (here: Time Turner; in canon: stunning Neville, Marietta, etc.) to succeed. I don't think she's going to let a younger girl step all over her and cow in submission.

She's smart and she knows it and isn't afraid to show it. (This is probably even more true for canon Hermione, who just shows it inappropriately and too much. My Hermione has been tamed down a bit, but doesn't react well to personal hostility and irrational demands that are an affront to her intellect. Seriously, how can she think Hermione will fall for her act?)

Hermione's also all business and has no patience for whinging or slacking. Canon Hermione exhibits these traits, but to a lesser degree as they are curbed by her gradual tolerance for Harry and Ron's whinging and slacking. But she constantly pushes them to think rationally and to be diligent.

Here, Hermione's friends Anthony and Padma are also rational, albeit more emotionally developed or socially savvy than she is. But they reinforce her focus on the rational. They are also pureblood and generally very polite. She never develops the tolerance for the Weasley loudness, brashness and rudeness that she does in canon. So I think she is acting rationally. Ginny storms into her compartment, demands that her friends leave, demands that Hermione – who she has never met – answer her questions without even properly introducing herself, acts hostile and accusing, lies to her and attempts to manipulate her, is really annoying and acting irrationally.

Hermione can't stand it.

She doesn't like rude, demanding people and she hates people who are illogical. We saw that with her behavior toward Luna, who was never hostile or demanding but was illogical. Dealing with illogical people frustrates her rational mind to no end!

Hermione is not all that socially savvy so sure, she might have handled it better. But she gets really defensive because she is just gaining her self-confidence and establishing her position in the world, and gets annoyed when Ginny so rudely questions her about private matters. So I think she does get pretty emotional, but her response is ultimately founded on her disbelief of Ginny's delusional, lying and underhanded tactics.

* * *

_Spoilers for next chapter: Hermione gets into a fight with her friends over the Time Turner and becomes disgruntled with Divination, there's a mysterious new DADA teacher, Harry tells Hermione about the escaped convict who's after him, and Hermione thinks more about her friendship with Harry._


	5. A Leaky Interlude

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley would've gone batshit crazy and landed in the St. Mungo's Spell Damage Ward for the rest of her life after being possessed by Voldie.

AN: This was a short, unplanned interlude for all those people who wanted to hear more about Harry. This means that we (unfortunately) might have two chapters left of Year Three, for a grand total of four chapters for this year. Way behind schedule. :(

On the plus side, I might have found a cool job doing something I'm really interested in! On the minus side, they want me to start ASAP so I'll be moving and working my butt off for the next couple of weeks or so... :(

Thanks to my beta Radical for helping with this chappie.

* * *

**A Leaky Interlude **

**Summer After Second Year **

* * *

_Dear Journal,_

_I talked with Sev today, for the first time since the incident last year. He accused me of smiling while Potter bullied him. As if that was sufficient explanation for calling me 'Mudblood'!... When he promised not to so many times. And especially when he'd already been dabbling in the Dark Arts with known aspiring Death Eaters. _

_How can I be friends with someone who wants to eradicate my people? Or is there still some good in him that I could hope to rescue? _

_I'm not silly; I don't really think I can save him. He's the only one who can save himself. _

_I told him so and he became angry again. I really don't know what to do. Why can't he change, back to the wonderful boy who was my best friend? __How__ can I help him?_

_Even Potter has been changing lately. He's stopped pranking and ridiculing people so often, and has even laid off Sev. And apparently he's finally realized how important grades are. He's been spending more time in the library. Studying. With books in front of him, not just gossiping with his friends or hitting on girls. Six years late, but better late than never, I guess. _

_Rumor – well, Remus – has said Potter's thinking about quitting Quidditch! Or at least, he's been spending a lot less time on the pitch. Remus also says Potter now wants to be an Auror!...Be responsible, fight in the war. That's really admirable for someone who just last year was a vain, mean-spirited, egotistic bully who wanted only to be a Quidditch star. _

_Not that there's anything wrong with Quidditch. It's entertaining but that's all it is. Quidditch players make no practical impact, no contribution to society. For the sort of person who wants to live a glamorous but empty life full of vapid women, conspicuous consumption and momentary fame. _

_But will this sudden turn to maturity last? He's still an incorrigible flirt, for one. (Ugh! Like I would ever even consider going out with him.) _

_Can I accept that James Potter can change without accepting that Sev can change as well – but for the worse? Or perhaps that Sev can change again, and be the man I knew him to be?_

* * *

Harry laid, sprawled out on his bed in the Leaky. Where Minister Fudge had told him he was supposed to stay after blowing up his nasty Aunt Marge. His single in the attic was small, creaky and the ceiling dripped water when it rained but was still a vast improvement on his cupboard at the Dursleys.

As he laid on his back, reading one of his mother's notebooks that Hermione Granger had sent over, he thought about his life. (Well, after he got over how his mum and Snape had been childhood best friends!)

Would his mother be proud of him now?

Was he even worthy of her sacrifice?

She'd given up her life for him. Even now, her love protected him.

And who was he now?

A Quidditch player.

The kind of person she'd thought wanted a "glamorous but empty life." Who made no "contribution to society" other than providing a source of momentary amusement.

At first, he was angry. What right did she have to say these things about him when she had never known him? Or, from the sounds of it, known a real professional Quidditch player? They did have an impact! They let people forget their troubles. Believe in something simple, stable.

And why wasn't he allowed to do something just because it was momentarily amusing? Why did he have to make a contribution to society? Hadn't he already made one? Hadn't he already given up enough? What more did they want from him?

And why couldn't he have some pleasant distraction when everyone else expected him to be a savior, to save them? Don't heroes have feelings? Don't heroes get to have fun?

He had already contributed to society anyways. And even now, everyone expected him to take care of Voldemort or any other Dark Wizards that infiltrated Hogwarts while he was there. To do great things. To be the _Boy-Who-Lived_.

Why couldn't he just be a _boy_ sometimes?

Why did his mum have to deny him this one pleasure? The only thing he'd ever really loved, Quidditch? The normal thing for all teenage boys to love?

He threw the notebook angrily at the wall and hid his face in the scratchy brown wool covers.

* * *

Harry slumped down the stairs to the dining room of the Leaky. It was an abandoned Sunday in August and there were only a handful of customers. Harry slouched into his customary seat at the bar. Spotting his red eyes and forlorn expression, Tom gave him a sympathetic grunt and handed him his usual: a pint of cold, smooth Butterbeer and a steaming hot shepherd's pie.

"Mistuh Potter," said Tom in his gravely Cockney accent, "whatchoo leakin' fo'?" [1]

Fork in mouth, Harry swallowed a big chunk of mashed potato before answering. He reddened at having been caught crying and looked down, muttering, "Nothing..."

"Ain't look like nothin' ta' me."

Harry set his fork down and took his head in his hands. "You're right. It's just that..."

The somber, balding old man leaned over the counter, "Wot?"

"Well, I feel like I've never really had the chance to be happy. I didn't have the best childhood, and the happiest I've been is playing on the Quidditch pitch. But playing Quidditch isn't a socially responsible thing to do, is it? Especially since I'm supposed to go out and save the world. So I just think my mum would've wanted me to study more. But that doesn't make me happy...am I being too selfish here?"

Tom nodded thoughtfully throughout Harry's rant. "A 'ard question. Ya ain't sel'vish. Ya just wanna be 'appy. Ain't no crime in 'dat, I t'ink."

He set his head on his elbows and looked straight into Harry's eyes. "Ya mum woudda wan'ed ya ta be da best bo' ya coul' be."

"What if the best I can be is a star Quidditch player?"

Tom shook his head slowly. "Nah. Ya'r a special bo', 'a course. Ya' diff'ent. Ya' can change t'ings. E'en tho' it's not fair, a lotta pe'ple d'pend on ya. Can ya be 'appy, playin' Quidditch while pe'ple suffa' an' die? But ya' can't do everythin'. Ya' a'so need time ta ya'self. Ya needa' balance."

"But why do I have to be responsible for people suffering and dying?" whinged Harry, feeling like a child throwing a tantrum but unable to stop. "I didn't sign up for the position. What can I even do? I'm just a third year! I don't even remember 'defeating You-Know-Who'! And I was just a one-year old. I have no idea what I did! Or if I can do it again!"

"Nah. Nah," grunted Tom forcefully. "Ya ain't 'ponsible fa other pe'ple's sufferin'. But ya' can do more 'bout it 'dan 'dey can. More 'dan e'en ya t'ink ya can. Ya'r special. Ya can t'ink ya'r cursed but I t'ink ya also blessed. Ya 'ave a chance ta be great. Ta save pe'ple. Ta do somethin' 'bout t'ings ya believe in. Ta be remembered foreva' as a right good bloke. Pe'ple'd kill fa t'at kinda chance, ya know. Like You-Know-Who."

Harry thought for a second. "But I don't know what I believe in. Or what I can do. I don't want to be great. I just want to be Harry and have a wife and family and live until I die in my sleep. That's all I want."

"Ya can 'ave 'dat, ya know. No 'un say ya can't. Ya'll find a lady, a right good 'un. But dontcha t'ink it'll be 'arder ta 'ave a nice family life if 'da darkness 's still 'ere? Wot if 'da right lady's muggleborn? Wot if 'nother Dark Wizard comes? Now, wot if ya could 'elp stop 'dat from 'appening?"

Harry was silent.

"I wanna do somethin' fa me squib lady, but I can't. Everyone wants ta do somethin' 'bout 'da evil but few can. Ya maybe can. Ya should be 'appy ta be able ta do somethin' wot we sit 'ere 'an suffa' an' 'ait ta die."

Tom paused. "Ya dun' believe in nothin'?" he asked, skeptical. "Wot are ya, a zombie?"

Harry scowled before joining Tom in a boisterous laugh.

"Wot 'bout givin' other kids a 'appy childhood? Ya say ya didn' 'ave one, do ya wan' others ta live like ya did?"

"No!" exclaimed Harry. "Of course not, I'd not wish the Dursleys on my worst enemy!"

"So ya believe in givin' kids widdout parents a 'appy childhood, 'den?"

"Yeah," said Harry, wondrous, "Yeah I guess I do."

"So do somethin' 'bout it! Pe'ple'll listen ta ya! Nobody cares 'bout wot po', ol', dumb Tom says but Harry! Harry Potta! 'Dey'd listen ta ya. Ya dun hafta give money ta an orphanage or somethin' but ya can speak out 'bout it. Ask pe'ple ta donate. Tell ya story, justa little bit so pe'ple know why dey should care. Ya don't e'en hafta do it now, just when ya grow ol'er. Ya' can ask fa more equality, fa po' squibs like me lady or muggleborns like ya mum. Real smart, she 'as. 'ead Girl 'er year too."

He paused to drop off a pumpkin pasty in front of Harry. "Ya favorite," smiled Tom crookedly.

"Stop t'inkin' 'bout 'dis so negatively. Ya can do great, great t'ings fa ol' Britannia, t'ings reg'lar pe'ple like me could nevva ev'n dream of! An' fa dat, ya gotta study, be pre'ared."

"But," whispered Harry, "but what if I go dark? They said all these things about Voldemort" - Tom winced - "sorry, You-Know-Who, but he ended up doing great wrong."

"But ya not lookin' fa 'dis powa. Ya dun wan' it. I can tell. You-Know-Who, 'e wan'ed it. I met 'im w'en 'e 'as just a young lad like you. 'E wan'ed it bad. 'E was so 'mbitious, so proud, 'e wan'ed ta be powwa'ful fa himself. Ya dun wan' powwa." He paused, and held a hand to his heart. "I can tell ya a good lad. Me mum said I'm good at readin' pe'ple. An' I ain't nevva been wrong. Ya goin' be a great, great bloke 'oo can do so much good."

Harry doubted he was worthy of so much confidence."But – "

Tom grinned at him again and waved away his worries. "Dun' worry now. "Now go an' 'njoy yaself. It's summa. Ya can 'tudy wot school starts 'gain."

* * *

A moment or two passed. Then Harry thanked Tom for the meal – he waved away Harry's thanks, deeming it unnecessary as he'd been staying at the Leaky for two weeks now – threw down some money, and sprinted upstairs to his room. Throwing open the door, he ran to the notebook where it had fallen and picked it up gingerly, carefully checking to see if it had been torn or bent anywhere. Cradling it in his arms, he brought it back to his bed and resumed reading.

Now, he was penitent.

Sure, he wasn't as obsessed as, say, Ron or his old captain Olly Wood. But somehow, he knew that distinction wouldn't have mattered to his mum.

Except for his good showing at the Dueling Club this past year, he was near the bottom of all his classes at school. Granted, DADA this past year had been a joke.

But still.

And the worst part was that he didn't think he was stupid.

He used to get good grades, before the Dursleys made him stop. But the Dursleys weren't at Hogwarts and weren't forcing him to do badly there.

It was all him. And it was all because he didn't even try.

He was always off practicing Quidditch or playing chess with Ron or Neville. He sneaked around using his dad's invisibility cloak. He tried to solve mysteries all the time, like with the Basilisk this year or the Philosopher's stone last year but still failed. Last year, he couldn't figure out the potions puzzle and this year, it'd been Hermione Granger who figured out that the animal was a Basilisk. He tried looking it up once in the library but gave up after just one time.

Without a doubt, he knew -

His mum would've been ashamed of his lack of commitment to his studies, especially in contrast to his dedication to Quidditch.

He'd been told by Professor McGonagall that his father had been a superb chaser. But no one had ever told him that his mother hadn't really liked the sport.

Or that his father had been – what was it his mum said? He turned back to the old, yellowing notebooks. Right. There they were. He traced the words with his index finger –

"_A vain, mean-spirited, egotistic prankster who wanted only to be a Quidditch star._"

Everyone had only said that his parents had been wonderful and died too young. That his dad had had a natural talent for flying and his mother had been real smart.

He'd idolized his dad, ever since he'd found out that he'd been a chaser on the Gryff team. He'd wanted to be like him, a Quidditch star people would remember for years to come.

But it sounded like even his dad began to think Quidditch was less important as he grew older. He'd realized how important classes were. His dad had changed, and wanted to be responsible. An Auror. To make contribution to society, fight in the war.

And maybe that's why his mum eventually fell in love with him. She sure didn't sound like she liked him, even in her sixth year. But somehow they got together – despite the fact that she had hated him and swore never to even consider going out with him.

All because he changed into someone worth knowing.

Worth liking.

Worth _loving_.

Obviously, she hadn't thought 'James Potter' the star Quidditch player was worth even liking. Maybe it was because he was apparently also a bully, egotistic and mean? Although if he teased Snape, then Harry totally agreed with him.

But still, she'd only thought 'James Potter' the serious student, the aspiring Auror was worth loving.

Would _he_ be worth loving, if she could see him now?

Or would she have been ashamed to have given her life for a son who was throwing his life away?

Everyone said she loved him so much she died for him. Maybe that was true. He couldn't imagine anyone loving him that much.

Everyone said mums loved you unconditionally.

Even if she would love him because he was her son, would she wish she had been there to raise him better?

Hopefully. Because then he wouldn't have had to live with the Dursleys.

But would she wish he had turned out differently? Would she be proud to have him as her son?

Harry wasn't sure.

As Harry flipped past the pages and pages of complicated summaries of Potions theories and musings on possible substitutes or additions to the wolfsbane potion to improve efficacy. He was ashamed to admit he couldn't understand them at all.

He would never be able to understand these notes, even in his sixth or seventh year. Not at the rate he was going, anyways. His mum, like Hermione Granger, was brilliant. Not just smart – brilliant. _Genius_.

And she studied hard. Harder than he'd ever worked on any of his schoolwork.

And as he kept reading the entries of his mum's journal, learning about how his dad had changed and become a man worthy of his mum's love, he let himself cry. Tears streamed down his face for the first time since he was seven. When he cried like a baby because he realized that the Dursleys would never love him. When he resolved never to cry again because if he kept on crying because of the Dursleys he would cry every day and become even more useless and get beaten even more.

He grasped the well-worn leather notebook to his chest and bawled.

And when he was done, he sloppily used his hand to wipe some snot from his nose and tears from his cheeks. Not wanting to make a mess, he rushed blindly to the loo, the tears still spilling from his eyes and clogging up his glasses.

When he returned, eyes red but face and glasses wiped clean, he held the notebook in his hands, away from him at eye level, and faced his heartbreaking realization.

"No, mum, you wouldn't be proud of me."

* * *

But. But. He was grateful to that word, but. It signified the possibility of change, of improvement.

But he could be better. He had an extraordinary opportunity to contribute to society in ways most people only dreamed of. Being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' was largely a personal curse but he could use it to be a blessing for society. To transform it, reform it, improve it. To uphold equality, which he was sure his mother would have wanted. To fight against Dark wizards like those who had killed his mum. Voldemort, if he ever came back for real.

He would follow in his dad's footsteps, again. But this time he would change. Change for the better. Commit to his studies. Worry less about Quidditch and other childish pursuits. Devote himself to his fate, to leveraging his celebrity to improve the world.

Fine, he never really had a childhood. Fine, he loved Quidditch and the freedom he felt flying. He could still play, but now he realized it was far from the be all and end all of Wizarding life. Or even the life of a Hogwarts student. Studies were. If he was going to change the world, he'd have to research all about Wizarding society – its laws, its history and traditions. If he was going to push for equality, he was going to have to educate himself. If he was going to fight Dark wizards, he'd have to become a better dueler and learn all he could from DADA.

He owed it to himself to live up to his great potential. He owed it to society to do something more with his life than to be a good Quidditch player.

And he owed it to his mum to continue her work and help realize her dreams of equality and justice for all – muggleborns as well as purebloods, humans as well as other species, like werewolves. Especially those humans who had been infected by werewolves and suffered not only the pain of a monthly transformation but also the utter disdain of society.

This was going to be a new era in his life.

His dad had improved so much sixth year that he'd been chosen as Head Boy in his seventh year. His mum had been Head Girl. Maybe that's when they fell in love, because she saw he could be responsible and smart.

He wanted to do it too. He wanted to be Head Boy. And maybe the Head Girl would be the 'right lady' for him. Just like she had been for his dad.

He could dream, couldn't he? [2]

* * *

**NOTES:**

[1] Yes, I know Tom does not have a Cockney accent in the books. But what can I say, I wanted to try it out. And it seems to fit into the whole barman persona: the rough but wise old barman who's seen a lot in his many years and gives out sage advice.

[2] Yes, he's a little young for a boy having thoughts about romance and girls. But he's been reading and thinking a lot about love and his parents, so I think it makes sense. I know canon Harry is kinda vapid but my Harry will be more romantic, deep and thoughtful. Because I think that fits with the rest of canon Harry's personality better than his shallow canon proclivity toward popular, sporty beautiful girls.

* * *

_Spoilers for next chapter: We resume the initial timeline with the start of Hermione's third year. We'll be moving a bit faster, and I might upload a short teaser because it might be a while before I update again. :(_


	6. Teaser

Disclaimer: If I'd written Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley would've been killed by the Basilisk.

AN: Sorry for the long lapse in updates! I started my new job already and have been furiously house-hunting in LA, and it's not easy! (It doesn't help that my friends think that writing this story makes me regress into teenage mode, lol.) I'm hoping to get a new chapter out in the new few weeks though, but for now here's a short teaser from the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy, and please keep reviewing!

Thanks again to my beta, Radical, for helping edit this teaser!

* * *

**The Ravenclaw Chronicles**

**Year Three, Part Two: Sirius Black**

* * *

Leaning her cheek on the cool window of the Express, Hermione sucked contentedly on the Sugar Quill. She rarely ate sweets but when she did she went all out, eating the sweetest, most fattening candies. Hermione bit off parts of the stem while watching the soggy English countryside fly by.

"What was that all about?" asked Padma while delicately popping a Chocolate Frog into her mouth – no small feat while they wriggled about.

Pulling the quill out of her mouth, Hermione responded, "She demanded to know what my 'relationship' with Potter was. Felt like an interrogation."

Anthony looked up from a French DADA text he was perusing and smirked teasingly, "Did you tell her all about the hot hot sex you two had on French nudist beaches?"

He and Padma broke out into laughter while Hermione scowled.

"Seriously, though, Parvarti tells me that Ginny Weasley is stalker-obsessed."

"Every breath you take / Every move you make / Every step you take / I'll be watching you..." crooned Anthony dramatically, holding his hand to his chest.

"Huh?" asked Padma, confused.

"You listen to _The Police_?" exclaimed Hermione.

"Oh can't you see," continued Anthony, standing up and gesturing theatrically to Hermione, "You belong to me..." and pulled her close to him.

Hermione broke out in giggles, exclaiming, "That's exactly what she said!" before stepping away from Anthony and turning to Padma.

"It's a old Muggle pop song by a band named _The Police_. My dad loves them."

"My dad used to work as the liaison to the British Muggle government," explained Anthony. "He always had all these records and books about Muggle culture, and I got really into them when I was younger. _Radiohead_ and _Sting_ were some of my favorite artists."

"Well, whatever it is seems to describe Ginny Weasley perfectly," stated Padma, "She was so rude when she came in I almost didn't want to leave you in here but..."

"I can handle her," said Hermione firmly.

"There was never any doubt about that," declared Anthony before resuming his off-key rendition of _Every Breath You Take_. [1]

Both girls broke into another fit of laughter, until suddenly a chill ran through their bones. It was as if the cold muggy outside air had seeped into their bodies and the colors had bled from their vision, casting shadows in the compartment and in their hearts. There was an inexplicably oppressive presence that forced down their laughter and good cheer and replaced it with morose sadness and loneliness.

Wide-eyed and hearts in their throats, Padma and Hermione looked confusedly at one another. Anthony quickly took out his wand, stance defensive and eyes belying his fear, and screamed, "Dementors!"

But the shadows left just as quickly as they arrived.

* * *

Anthony sat as his window seat, eyes staring off into the distance and hand tapping the end of his quill against the desk.

The three friends were sitting at the coveted study table in the library – in the back, so extremely quiet and beyond the eyes and ears of Madam Pince; solitary, so as to avoid any chatter or distraction from other tables; framed by two windows, for a spectacular view of the Lake and Forbidden Forest; and near the DADA section, for easy access to relevant books.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair and stretching his feet out underneath the table.

"Anthony!" Hermione scolded, "Stop tapping your quill, it's distracting."

"But 'Mione – "

"Don't call me that!"

"Fine. HER-mione, are you done looking up the Patronus? I'm telling you, you have to practice it. You can't learn it from a book."

"But we have to understand the theory behind the spell before we can even think about attempting it. The correct wand movements, the intent..."

"We already know the basic hand movement, incantation and intent. The rest is fifth-year Arithmancy work," interrupted Padma, "Nothing we'll learn for two years."

"We can still read the texts on it – "

"Arithmancy is difficult, and we haven't even learned the basics of it," argued Anthony, "Can you seriously tell me that you understand what you're reading?"

"Of course I do, I – "

Padma set her hand on Hermione's arm. "It's OK if you don't," she soothed, warmly, "We're not being patronizing; we wouldn't even dream of reading that text. We're just being realistic."

Hermione closed the book, angry and defeated. "Fine, then, what do you suppose we do? Wave our wands around and hope for the best?"

Anthony scowled, "There's no need to have such a bad attitude, we're just trying to help – "

"Right, and how is this helping – "

Padma held up both her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Ok, this is not constructive. I propose we visit Professor Lupin and ask him for extra help."

Hermione scoffed, "Like we're behind or something?"

"No," said Anthony, "Like we want to get ahead."

Hermione glared at Anthony. He raised his eyebrows in challenge. "It's perfectly logical. There were dementors on the Express and now there are some stationed near the school," he looked out over the Forbidden Forest, "and we want to defend ourselves but aren't sure how to perform it correctly. We don't need extra help, we're thinking ahead. Think of it kind of like private tutoring, if you want."

Padma agreed. "Anyone who thinks we three need help are barmy, and you know it."

"In fact we might just start a trend of students pestering Professor Lupin for help," Anthony pointed out, "So either way we should keep our visits low profile."

Hermione sank into her chair, defeated. "Oh, alright. You're right." She sighed and turned to Anthony, "I'm sorry for the unjustified snarkiness. I know you were just trying to help – it's just that Trelawney's been driving me batty."

"That's what I hear from Parvati too," added Padma. "'Vati says all Trelawney does in class is predict Potter's death."

"Yeah. It's terrible. And now she has Harry thinking that Sirius Black is after him."

"Black? The Azkaban escapee?" inquired Anthony.

Hermione nodded.

"Why would he think that...?" asked Padma.

"Well, he said that he overheard Ron Weasley's dad talking about it." She remembered her conversation with Harry earlier that month –

* * *

_Hermione tapped Harry on the shoulder as they left Divination. He turned around and smiled at her. _

"_Hi."_

"_Can we talk?"_

"_Sure, just let me tell Ron." Harry walked over to Weasley, who'd been scowling at her behind Harry's back. After a series of increasingly angry gestures, he returned, exasperated, as the red-faced Weasley stomped away. _

"_Are you sure it's OK...?" she asked, looking at Weasley's retreating back._

"_He'll get over it," huffed Harry. "Anyways," he said, gracing her with a rare smile, "What'd you want to talk about?"_

"_Oh," said Hermione, distracted by his sudden change in expression and the brilliance of his smile. "Nothing big, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about Trewlaney and you shouldn't believe a word she says. It's absolutely ridiculous, her 'predictions'..."_

_Harry grimaced. "Thanks. I know she's a fake but it's just so annoying to have to listen to her all the time, talking about me dying as if – "_

"_It were a joke?" she finished, questioningly. _

"_Yeah. Yeah, exactly that."_

"_I'm sorry...I wish I could do more or say it'll be OK but it sucks because you have to listen to her every other day – "_

"_Unless I quit Divination. I know. I've seriously thought about it," he said, bitterly. "I've also seriously thought about making up a premonition about my own death so she'll just give me an O." He gave a wry smile._

"_Or you could make up a premonition where she dies," joked Hermione._

_They both laughed, a little awkwardly._

_After a brief silence, Harry moved a little closer and whispered, "You know it wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't think that Sirius Black was after me."_

"_What!" screeched Hermione._

"_Shhh!" insisted Harry, pulling her into an empty classroom. "Don't be so loud."_

_Hermione blushed. "Sorry. So, Sirius Black...?"_

"_Yeah. Well, I overheard Mr. Weasley talking about it, how now that Sirius escaped he'd be coming for me at Hogwarts. And then the Dementors attacked, and I think they stationed the Dementors around the school because they – the Ministry, that is – are afraid he's going to come here too."_

"_Well they are the creatures that guard Azkaban but if he escaped them there what makes them think that he won't get past the Dementors again?"_

"_I'm not sure. I don't even know who he killed or why he's after me..."_

_Hermione sympathetically put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped back, surprised and Hermione blushed._

"_Sorry, it's just instinct I guess...it's what my parents do when I'm upset, sometimes it makes me feel better; I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable though..." _

"_No!" yelled Harry._

_She stepped back, a little offended._

"_No, no that's not what I meant. I just," he paused, as if finding it difficult to continue. "It's the first time someone's wanted to comfort me like that and I'm not used to it. But," he smiled a little, "it felt good though..."_

"_Ok," she smiled back._

_A couple seconds passed before she asked, "Well, how's your new commitment going?"_

_Harry flushed in shame. "Um...it's harder than I thought. Maybe because I slacked off last year but it's hard understanding some of the concepts."_

_"You know, you could always come to me for help," said Hermione._

_Harry nodded but said nothing. After a moment, he continued, "Neville's been a great help in Herbology but Ron...doesn't really understand my new commitment to my work. He gets annoyed when I want to study instead of playing Quidditch or chess."_

"_Oh." Hermione wanted to be sympathetic but didn't really know what to say. "Have you tried talking to him about your mother and – "_

"_No!" Harry exclaimed again. He flushed, "No. I'm sorry, I don't mean to yell...it's just that I don't feel comfortable talking to him about that kind of stuff, you know?"_

_She patted his shoulder again, tentatively. He relaxed into her touch, smiling back at her. _

"_I understand," she said. "Maybe you just need to make clear to him that school is a priority for you now."_

"_But how?" he said, helplessly._

"_Tell him?"_

_He answered her with a skeptical look._

"_I'm not sure," she admitted, unsure of what could get through to Weasley. "But," she said firmly, looking him in the eye, "If he's a true friend, he'll understand and stick by you no matter what. Even without knowing your reasoning for your change in priorities."_

"_Yeah," agreed Harry. _

"_Yes," she affirmed, smiling. "And in the meantime, maybe I could look into Sirius Black when I have time."_

"_You'd do that?" he asked, incredulously. "What about all your classes...?"_

"_Don't worry," she said, smiling at him even as she was inwardly cringing, wondering how she had yet again got herself into a mess concerning Harry Potter. "I'll make time."_

* * *

Anthony and Padma listened to her tale pensively. They both seized upon different aspects of her recollection.

"What do you mean, 'I'll make time'!" questioned Padma.

"You promised to help him, again! Don't you remember what happened last year?" demanded Anthony.

Hermione dropped her head to the desk dejectedly. Padma shook her, demanding answers.

"Oh, ok," sighed Hermione. She turned to Anthony, "I don't know what I was thinking! I know I was stupid and I know I said I'd never do it again but it...slipped out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying. He just looked so excited, I couldn't take it back!"

He looked at her disapprovingly.

"Hey! I'm not forcing you to help me and I didn't really commit to anything...He knows I'm busy and he doesn't expect anything...I'll just ask Luna to check old _Quibbler_ issues, that worked last year and maybe you guys can ask your parents? Maybe we have a stack of old _Prophets_ here..." Hermione would've nervously rambled on more but Padma stopped her.

"Ok, we'll both" she looked pointedly at Anthony, who grudgingly nodded, "check with our parents. You can check the _Prophets_ on your own time. And I guess this means that we're inviting Luna to more study sessions. Now," she paused to look at Hermione straight in the eye, "tell us about making time." [2]

* * *

**NOTES:**

[1] I've always thought this was the ultimate stalker song. And that it described Ginny Weasley perfectly.

[2] Dun dun dun! I've been totally wanting to end a chapter on that sentence. I see the Time Turner as 'making time' in the same sense that banks 'make money.'

* * *

_Spoilers for the next chapter: In which there is a campaign to save Sirius Black on legal grounds and Hermione and her friends attempt to work out the exact mechanics of and regulations surrounding Time Turners._


End file.
